“You need a team that speaks your language.”

I use humour a lot. My foundation is tragic, but my appearance is humorous.

I always loved music, and I always wanted to make a film about it, but I could never do it because of the censorship that was around.

In Kurdistan, theres a lot of hardship – a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

I had no education in filmmaking. I started with a 8mm camera. I made 34 films, and little by little I gained more experience in filming.

Im free – but Im also not free because there are millions of young people living in Iran. A filmmaker can only do a little.

I used to believe that people are only born once, but now I feel I have been reborn, like I was given a new life. I see myself as a child, full of energy and hope.

Actually, the only thing I regret is not making more underground films and bringing them with me as historical documents.

I love music, I make films with music, I eat with music, I sleep with music, I think with music. Music makes me dream, it strengthens my creativity.

For me, its better to live without looking over your shoulder, worrying about who is controlling your phone, maybe poisoning your food.

If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.

Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too.

Under its influence, wholly or in part, have blossomed weekends, strong nerves, strong legs, strong language… equality of sex, good digestion and professional occupation – in four words, the emanicipation of women.

Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.

Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.

In terms of language, English is very dominant vis-Ã-vis African language. That in itself is a power relationship – between languages and communities – because the English language is a determinant of the ladder to achievement.