In this Western world that we have, culture risks being [only] a form of entertainment.

Art is our weapon. Culture is a form of resistance.

I find that through the study of women, you get to the heart - the truth - of the culture.

Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics have defined our lives.

Being political is an integral part of being Iranian. Our lives are defined by politics.

Art is no crime. It's every artist's responsibility to make art that is meaningful

Poets use metaphors and symbolism to construct images. I construct my images in the same way, except that I am using a different form.

Beautiful woman wrapped in chadors, with huge machine guns in their hands. Brilliant, shocking, amazingly contradictory images. They compelled me to deeply investigate these ideas.

To me, editing is not something you can do in a rush because the artists themselves are not always their own best editors. Time is absolutely everything.

Nature has the most powerfully healing effect.

My mother is my last point of security in relation to my past, and if that breaks, I will not ever have that type of pure love or pure attachment.

You know how many movies it took Tom Cruise before he was making 5, 6 million dollars? It probably took a billion dollars in box office.

Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

To become successful and outstanding at something, we don't have to come up with something new; we need only find ways of doing it better.

I remember my boyfriend and I had just broken up, and I was like 'I don't care how much it costs, I'm getting my hair bleached!' That's really when everything changed.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

The short span of life forbids us to spin out hope to any length. Soon will night be upon you, and the fabled Shades, and the shadowy Plutonian home.

Adam had once told Gansey, "Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done.

Come into my life, here where nothing matters. Come into my life, roll away the gloom.

I could lie and say my wife cooks for me, but she doesn't. My wife has never learnt cooking but she has great cooks at home.

I can't give up. It's a rap thang. And I ain't goin back to the crack game.