Abbas Kiarostami

Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward.

Whenever people ask me what the story is for my next film, I won't tell and people feel it's because I'm being secretive or something, but it's actually because I'm ashamed to sum up a film in three sentences.

Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it.

I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I'm just marketing my work!

Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.

There are at least two retrospectives of my work each year in some country.

I think I really produce my best work in Iran.

From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing.

Everybody knows that I am not usually patient enough to actually sit down and watch one of my own films from the beginning to the end - I never do.

I never really learned photography.

I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.

Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved.

I can watch films and say how technically beautiful they are, but I'm not impressed by any technicality.

Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.

A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience.

My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated.

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can't limit it to one particular culture.

Usually when I take my films to festivals, I feel incredibly anxious about them. I wonder how it will be received, how the audience will react. I feel deeply responsible for them.

If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.

A good movie is made by an initial burst of energy, the way that, when you are in school, your class exercises are always better than your final projects.

When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.

To me, AIDS is an international epidemic and every country can be affected by it. Therefore, it can be discussed on an international level. Unfortunately, AIDS doesn't require a visa.

Some movies bring out the creativity in you. Every single audience member can become creative in the face of a particular movie. If you happen to like my films, it's because my films provide a bed for you on which you can find your creativity. The Hollywood movies do not provide that for you.

I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.