I love studying Ancient History and seeing how empires rise and fall, sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

There's no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.

You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.

Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. Let the learning continue.

As a child I had terrible asthma.

More than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.

I love movies - it's my whole life, and that's it.

Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out.

Always stay open to surprise.

I’m not interested in a realistic look, not at all, not ever. Every film should look the way I feel.

Is it so far from madness to wisdom?" - Daenerys Targaryen

Get your ego in check and half your battles in life will disappear.

One gets ‘headaches’, because he gives headache to others.

The grave has a door on its inner side.

We don't have paparazzi following you in Sweden.

Truth offends everyone outside its definitions. But the irony of truth is that the greater its potential for offense, the greater its potential for giving hope.

The thing about Iran is there are many political factions and it's not quite the dictatorial, authoritarian state with one person always making every single decision.

I think hell's a real place where real people spend a real eternity.

The shortest verse in the Bible is 'Jesus wept.' The only thing wrong with it is the past tense.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire . . .