You need a team that speaks your language.

I used to believe that people are only born once, but now I feel I have been reborn, like I was given a new life. I see myself as a child, full of energy and hope.

I always loved music, and I always wanted to make a film about it, but I could never do it because of the censorship that was around.

In Kurdistan, theres a lot of hardship - a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

For me, its better to live without looking over your shoulder, worrying about who is controlling your phone, maybe poisoning your food.

Im free - but Im also not free because there are millions of young people living in Iran. A filmmaker can only do a little.

I had no education in filmmaking. I started with a 8mm camera. I made 34 films, and little by little I gained more experience in filming.

I love music, I make films with music, I eat with music, I sleep with music, I think with music. Music makes me dream, it strengthens my creativity.

Actually, the only thing I regret is not making more underground films and bringing them with me as historical documents.

I use humour a lot. My foundation is tragic, but my appearance is humorous.

I try very hard to be annoying! Don't insult my ability to annoy!

When happiness is liked by me and others equally, what is so special about me that I should strive after happiness only for myself?

Movies endorsed unwanted ideas by putting them into story form and resolving them up there on the screen. The goal was, as always, identification, but also relief.

People need patience. It takes time to build a brand.

It's about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along.

There are no accidents in Nature.

Used to be in the old days, only the pulp writers wrote like machines. Now everybody is expected to be literary John Henrys. So in that context someone like me is an anomaly.

Found myself screaming in a hotel room. I didn't want to self-destruct.

In statesmanship there are predicaments from which it is impossible to escape without some wrongdoing.

Money is the sovereign queen of all delights - for her, the lawyer pleads, the soldier fights.