Abbas Kiarostami Quotes

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, ‘Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.’ That’s not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

It’s true that the best way of knowing yourself is to put yourself into different situations.

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

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 have no advice for anyone on how to live.

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 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.

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.

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.