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.

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

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.

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

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.

Don't tie your success to anything other than what's inside you

Dreams give purpose to one’s life. If you do not wish anything better for yourself or for your loved ones, then life loses meaning.

Small miracles happen every day, some people just don’t notice them.

Once you have tasted conviction, you can’t bear to keep swallowing complacency.

There's imperfect food out there that just needs a mouth to bite into it.

Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted.

What stuff is the man made of who is not coexistent in our thought with the purest and sublimest truth?

I've lived history. I've made history, and I know I'll have my place in history. That's not egoism.

Management that wants to change an institution must first show that it loves that institution.

Young lovers are always doomed.