Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can’t limit it to one particular culture.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMIThe day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.
More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes
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As long as I take the responsibility of the choice, I have to make the choice that is as right as possible.
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In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.
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The one-word cinema wasn’t possible for me anymore. I’d hit a wall, a dead end. Therefore I thought I’d turn back.
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I think I really produce my best work in Iran.
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I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.
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We are nothing but a link between our culture and what we can actually produce.
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I wasn’t searching for a common denominator – I started wondering about the challenge of working in other cultures. What I reached was the sudden acknowledgment of the universal aspect of filmmaking.
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I only make notes, I don’t write dialogues in full. And the notes are very much based on my knowledge of person.
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The only thing that I can do is hold a mirror in front of men and women, in front of the viewer in the theater, to reflect. There is nothing but reflection that I could intend to offer the viewer of the film.
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My car’s my best friend. My office. My home. My location. I have a very intimate sense when I am in a car with someone next to me. We’re in the most comfortable seats because we’re not facing each other, but sitting side by side.
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A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making.
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Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.
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I thought that I had been asked every kind of question possible.
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I don’t generally derive my stories from novels. I try to turn into film things I have felt or experienced.
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I think violence can never be justified. At the same time, nobody’s culture or beliefs should be insulted, that’s not something I can accept either. But I cannot justify or accept any violence at all.
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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.
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The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.
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I didn’t just see myself as a film director here [in Life And Nothing More], but also as an observer of people who had been condemned to death.
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I am still very surprised that I managed to make that film [Close Up]. When I actually look back on that film, I really feel that I was not the director but instead just a member of the audience.
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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.
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I do believe that a film like Ten could never have been made with a 35mm camera. The first part of the film lasts 17 minutes, and by the end of that part, the kid has totally forgotten the camera.
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It’s very true that non-actors feel more comfortable in front of a digital camera, without the lights and the large crowd around them, and we arrive at much more intimate moments with them.
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When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground, and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit.
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I thought that choosing a non-professional was a condition for me, because it would allow Juliette to have a less-professional way of acting. It would challenge her performance as a professional actress.
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Those same people, when they leave the theater, when they look behind the curtains they are curious about their neighbors, they can guess if their neighbors are siblings or a couple, how old they are, what their occupation is.
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There are certainties in existence, but love is something much harder to define than light and dark, life and death. I think saying you are “like” someone in love sounds right.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI