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All Quotes by author - Abbas Kiarostami

" All the different nations in the world, despite their differences of appearance and religion and language and way of life, still have one thing in common, and that is what's inside of all of us. If we X-rayed the insides of different human beings, we wouldn't be able to tell from those X-rays what the person's language or background or race is. "

" A movie is about human beings, about humanity. "

" As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us. "

" Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time. "

" Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life. "

" Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved. "

" From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing. "

" I feel like a tree. A tree doesn't feel a duty to start doing something about the earth from which it comes. A tree just has to bear fruit, and leaves and blossoms. It doesn't feel grateful to the earth. "

" I have no advice for anyone on how to live. "

" In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture. "

" In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you. "

" I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind. "

" I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does. "

" I think violence can never be justified. "

" I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films. "

" I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame. "

" I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I'm just marketing my work! "

" I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political. "

" My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that's my perception of life. "

" Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it. "

" Some movies bring out the creativity in you. Every single audience member can become creative in the face of a particular movie. If you happen to like my films, it's because my films provide a bed for you on which you can find your creativity. The Hollywood movies do not provide that for you. "

" The calling of art is to extract us from our daily reality, to bring us to a hidden truth that's difficult to access - to a level that's not material but spiritual. "

" The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free. "

" There is violence in real life but I would never impose violence in a film just to attract the audience. "

" The world is my workshop. It is not my home. "

" Whenever people ask me what the story is for my next film, I won't tell and people feel it's because I'm being secretive or something, but it's actually because I'm ashamed to sum up a film in three sentences. "

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