“I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind.”

Anything I’ve not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.

Children are very strong and independent characters and can come up with more interesting things than Marlon Brando, and it’s sometimes very difficult to direct or order them to do something.

I have no advice for anyone on how to live.

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.

I thought that I had been asked every kind of question possible.

When I’m in the process of making a movie I’m not thinking about the finished result, and whether people have to see it once or more than once, and what the reaction to it will be. I just make it, and then I live with the consequences.

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.

We don’t look at each other [in the car], but instead do so only when we want to. We’re allowed to look around without appearing rude. We have a big screen in front of us and side views.

If it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

This was pointed out to me by somebody who referred to the paintings of Rembrandt and his use of light: some elements are highlighted while others are obscured or even pushed back into the dark.

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

A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making.

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.

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

Despite the great advantages of digital video and the great ease of using the medium, still those who use it have first to understand the sensitivities of how to best use the medium.

I don’t like reverse-angle shots – I find them very fake and very untruthful to the viewer.

There’s a way that you can throw negativity out there that seems rebellious. But I’ve always taken pleasure in a different kind of rebellion, which is putting a positive spin on everything, trying to enjoy myself at all times.

The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.

I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.

The pagan loves the earth in order to enjoy it and confine himself within it; the Christian in order to make it purer and draw from it the strength to escape from it.

I’m enjoying where I’m at in my life and I feel like I’m learning a lot on a daily basis.

When I went into the last lap I was regretting a bit that it was over. I was enjoying again the first sector for the last time.

It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

There is no secret, once we go to qualifying, we all seem to enjoy it. Qualifying is all about putting everything that you have and that the car has in one lap. It’s like a rush, I really enjoy that.