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 world is my workshop. It is not my home.
If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.
I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.
I film normal-life subjects in natural settings that some people would consider uncinematic. But what I want to show is nature itself, as the truth of life.
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.
