I gained a great deal from the period during which I worked in theater and I value those things a great deal.

One of the biggest blessings in my life is that I have a very wonderful family, a lovely wife and two lovely daughters.

It's not some big event that creates the drama, it's the little things of everyday life that bring about that drama.

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

When I decide to write a story, I don't think too much about what I want it to be, I just let things come naturally and this is how it turns out. It's just how my subconscious works.

I like storytelling, and for storytelling you need a drama. And for there to be drama, you need twists, and by twists I mean the ability to constantly change the trajectory of the story.

I would have had the same narrative, regardless of the atmosphere and the restrictions.

In my opinion when you speak about relationships between people, you are actually talking about everything in their world because everything is contained in that relationship.

One must never tell a child what it is they should display acting.

Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.

May my family, household and I be a devout God-fearing men and women.

When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?

Marriage with love is entering heaven with one's eyes shut, but marriage without love is entering hell with them open.

One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily.

Everything, virtue, glory, honor, things human and divine, all are slaves to riches.

I tended to favour the piano over the guitar because it stays in one place, which is what I like to do.

Natural freedoms are but just: There's something generous in mere lust.

we always misunderstood ourselves, and rarely understood others

In France a lot of songs were ruined by their associations with commercials. But so far no Apple commercial has ruined a song for me.

You don't want to get stuck with a record that you've done with someone that you feel obligated to put out - that's not really dope, just because you made an effort to get together and work.