Abbas Kiarostami: My last experience of film-making was Tickets, a thr...

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.

Abbas Kiarostami

fronts able looks

When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground, and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit. And if it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

Abbas Kiarostami

tree country thinking

I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.

Abbas Kiarostami

sleep morning night

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

Abbas Kiarostami

want people thinking

My car's my best friend. My office. My home. My location. I have a very intimate sense when I am in a car with someone next to me. We're in the most comfortable seats because we're not facing each other, but sitting side by side. We don't look at each other, but instead do so only when we want to. We're allowed to look around without appearing rude. We have a big screen in front of us and side views. Silence doesn't seem heavy or difficult. Nobody serves anybody. And many other aspects. One most important thing is that it transports us from one place to another.

Abbas Kiarostami

car views home

It's true that the best way of knowing yourself is to put yourself into different situations.

Abbas Kiarostami

different knowing way

I think that in life, being is nothing but an illusion. If we acknowledge that and accept the fact that we are in between states, that we are moving, and this movement is the nature of our lives, and we stop having aspirations for being in a definite state, we know life better and are able to enjoy it better.

Abbas Kiarostami

able moving thinking

Maybe more than a teller, I am a story listener. I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind. All of my films are a collection of small stories that have been told to me.

Abbas Kiarostami

listening mind remember

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

Abbas Kiarostami

lazy cinema people

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

Abbas Kiarostami

stills poetry-is darkness

I often say to my students in workshops that if they are trying to find literary inspiration, they should not go and read novels, because novels are more appropriate for series. Where as they should read short stories - that's the right format for you to be able to actually display the narrative in a film.

Abbas Kiarostami

inspiration students trying

A movie is about human beings, about humanity.

Abbas Kiarostami

human-beings humans humanity

When I'm in the process of making a movie I'm not thinking about the finished result, and whether people have to see it once or more than once, and what the reaction to it will be. I just make it, and then I live with the consequences, some of which may not be as pleasant as I'd like! I know one thing, however. Many viewers may come out of the theater not satisfied, but they won't be able to forget the movie. I know they'll be talking about it during their next dinner. I want them to be a little restless about my movies, and keep trying to find something in them.

Abbas Kiarostami

talking people thinking

The only thing that I can do is hold a mirror in front of men and women, in front of the viewer in the theater, to reflect. There is nothing but reflection that I could intend to offer the viewer of the film.

Abbas Kiarostami

mirrors reflection men

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.

Abbas Kiarostami

rays differences race

We are nothing but a link between our culture and what we can actually produce.

Abbas Kiarostami

produce links culture

I think being someone in love is so hard to define, so temporary, because retrospectively we often deny the state in which we were in love.

Abbas Kiarostami

deny love-is thinking

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can't limit it to one particular culture.

Abbas Kiarostami

voice limits culture

Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I'm interested in.

Abbas Kiarostami

cinema believe

It seems that film-makers are being divided between those working in digital and those who are not. I think it's not something predetermined - it all depends on what project we have in mind, and on that basis we choose the medium.

Abbas Kiarostami

digital mind thinking

My last experience of film-making was Tickets, a three-episode film in Italy, the third of which is directed by myself. It's not for me to judge whether it's a good film or a bad film, but what I could say is that nobody had a cultural or linguistic issue with what was produced.