“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.”

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.

In my opinion the man looks at the relationship in a more bitter fashion and the woman still holds great hopes.

With the RED, I didn’t have this impression at all. I felt that it was as heavy as a film camera. Having this great crew, with the DP and his assistants, I found it making as much of an impression as a very big film camera.

It’s not so much a question of whether we’ve shot it through 35mm or digital video; what is important is whether the audience accepts it as real.

I think life is so difficult to catch, it’s so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it.

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.

I can only listen to what I’m working on, at the time. I can’t listen to anything else because I don’t want to copy it.

It’s been very important throughout my career that I’ve met all the guys I’ve copied, because at each stage they’ve said, ‘Don’t play like me, play like you.’

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

How I can’t find a physical copy to my own shit.

You can copy someone else’s paper but you’ll never know how you arrived at your answer. 

If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.

Do your own thing. Others own their own thing. If you copy too much, you’ll find yourself in late night cocktail lounge cover band limbo.

Sometimes it’s flattering when people copy you, but sometimes it gets to a breaking point.