“I think that is the big danger in keeping a diary: you exaggerate everything.”

I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati’s.

I’d come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clear-cut language.

What is there to fear in such a regular world?

People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?

What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

My eyes feel all soft, all soft as flesh. I’m going to sleep.

I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen.

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees.

One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself.

You must be like me; you must suffer in rhythm.

People are like dice. We throw ourselves in the direction of our own choosing.

I’ve dropped out of their hearts like a little sparrow fallen from its nest. So gather me up, dear, fold me to your heart – and you’ll see how nice I can be.

There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.

I exist. It is soft, so soft, so slow. And light: it seems as though it suspends in the air. It moves.

Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo – obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.

No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger.

The only weapons that make me dangerous are my mind, mouth and pride, which will surely educate you.

You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.

You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.

This created world really helped me as an actor. It heightened everything, which made it more dangerous, more interesting and more liberating.