Quotes from Abbas Kiarostami

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

In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

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!

I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political.

All the different nations in the world, despite their differences of appearance and religion and language and way of life, still have one thing in common, and that is what's inside of all of us. If we X-rayed the insides of different human beings, we wouldn't be able to tell from those X-rays what the person's language or background or race is.

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.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

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.

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

My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that's my perception of life.

The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.

I never really learned photography.

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.

Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.

When you look at nature, you see a hidden mystery that gives a special flavor to the photograph.

In my mind, there isn't as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.

A movie is about human beings, about humanity.

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

As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.

I really think that I don't mind people sleeping during my films, because I know that some very good films might prepare you for sleeping or falling asleep or snoozing. It's not to be taken badly at all. This is something I really mean.

If you catch me coming out of a film, when I'm emotionally involved, I can tell you at that moment why I like it - but to talk about it years later is not logical to me.

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

I think it was [Jean-Luc] Godard who said that life is nothing but a bad copy of film, but then our ambition must be to make better films and better shapes of forms that are given in life.