But also, there are no films being made about Afghanistan.

Because there is so little room for expression otherwise, a lot of people love cinema because they find it a way of expressing themselves.

From my films, you can at least learn about Iran, you can get a sense of the history and the society. But no such films have been made about Afghanistan, so you really can't know much about it.

I was in jail four and a half years. When I came out, I continued the same struggle against injustice, but instead of using weapons, I began to use art and cinema.

The Buddhas had to be destroyed by the Taliban to get the world thinking about Afghanistan.

Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity.

I myself had to grow a longer beard and Afghan clothes. I was in danger of being kidnapped by smugglers, though I didn't know it at the time.

Usually people like to categorise artists. With my films, I categorise people: if I know which one of my movies you like, I can tell which kind of a person you are.

Do you know that every day, 10 people in Afghanistan are injured by landmines? It will continue for the next 50 years, because the country has the largest number of landmines in the world.

There's an 800 kilometer border between Iran and Afghanistan.

I'm not playing myself. It's a symbolic situation, where I want to introduce a fascist behind the table. I couldn't have had anybody else do that; for it to be successful, I had to do it myself.

When you read a line that is just so well-written you just close the book and stare at the wall for a minute.

I believe that what we want to write wants to be written

Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.

A foreign correspondent, after talking to me for a while, once said: "You don't seem smart enough to be so good at what you're doing. Do you have an explanation?"

I think when you have Baltimore, which in the first night was practically wiped out or brought back 30 years. Because the police were instructed to stand down. You can't let that happen.

experience should teach us that it is always the unexpected that does occur.

Hearts understand in ways our minds cannot.

I would love to buy a piece of land in the Moon, just to feel very farsighted, extremely optimistic and absolutely crazy!

When we help ourselves, we find moments of happiness. When we help others, we find lasting fulfillment.

Do not too many believe no zeal to be spiritual but what is censorious or vindictive? Whereas no zeal is spiritual that is not also charitable.