I don't like the word 'autobiography.' I rather like the term 'autofiction.' The second you make a script out of the story of your life, it becomes fictional. Of course, the truth is never far. But the story is created out of it. Marjane Satrapi More Quotes by Marjane Satrapi More Quotes From Marjane Satrapi You cannot be completely nice. It's impossible. Who is it? Who is the perfect guy? Show him to me! It doesn't exist. And thank god. Marjane Satrapi perfect-guy thank-god nice I'd heard so many stupidities about my country since I left Iran. People had watched this stupid movie Not Without My Daughter [in which Sally Field plays an American who rescues her daughter from her estranged in-laws in Iran]; I heard so many things like that. I did not make Persepolis for Iranians. It was my answer to the rest of the world, to say, "Let me give you another point of view." Marjane Satrapi daughter stupid country I was a child who had a life, who had hopes, and I wished that a bomb would not fall on my head. Marjane Satrapi bombs children fall I'm extremely unbearable. You know, I'm narcissistic and at the same time I'm very charming - I think. Marjane Satrapi narcissistic unbearable thinking I wanted to do my artistic work, and in Iran you have censorship. It was difficult for me to do the work I wanted to do. Marjane Satrapi censorship artistic iran In a place like Israel, they're very concerned with Iran, so there's a lot of interest. So they want to see what this Iranian from France has to say in her comics. I guess that's good. My the books are coming out in other countries. And each time, they discover something different to be interested in. Marjane Satrapi israel country book With live-action I think we'd have lost the universal appeal of the Persepolis story. With live-action, it would have turned into a story of 'the Other' - people living in a distant land who don't look like us. It might have been exotic, but also a "Third-World" story. Marjane Satrapi land people thinking The novels have done so well because the drawings are abstract, black-and-white. This adds to the universality of the story. "Persepolis" also has dreamlike moments, and the drawings help maintain cohesion and consistency. Marjane Satrapi consistency drawing black-and-white We always say we are equal in front of death, but when you are rich, for example, and you have everybody taking care of you, I think that you suffer much less. It must be much more painful to die when you are poor than when you are rich. But when your heart is broken, you can be rich, poor, whatever - a broken heart, we are all equal in front of it. And I think there is no subject more serious. Marjane Satrapi broken heart thinking If you're not [Federico] Fellini you might make something very vulgar. Animation made it possible to maintain unity with all these different narratives. Marjane Satrapi unity narrative might George W.Bush can go and kill thousands of Iraqis every day. By making people believe they are the enemy, and not human beings any more. If evil has an address, a nationality, you can exterminate all of them. This is fascism. Marjane Satrapi evil believe people I loved Chiara Mastroianni voice, her talent, her generosity. We rehearsed for two months...She's a workaholic and perfectionist, like Vincent [Paronnaud] and myself. Marjane Satrapi generosity voice two The most natural thing for us is drawing. The characters [in Persepolis] are hand drawn. We're not technical people. We don't know how to type. Marjane Satrapi drawing character hands You draw the character from all angles - side, profile, back, etc. so the animator has this character in all the ways it looks like. Marjane Satrapi etc character way I wrote the plot [for the Persepolis ]and Vincent [Paronnaud] and I wrote and discussed the shooting of the script. Vincent then took care of the production design, the actual shooting, and what was going on within each scene. It's very difficult, though, to draw a line between who did what. Because Vincent would say something, and I would add something, and at the end you have this film, yet no clear idea of who did what. Marjane Satrapi plot design ideas There's this scene in "The Night of the Hunter" when the kids are downstairs, and you have the feeling that they're both in a room and at the same time it looks remote. And you wonder, How can you give the effect of both "inside" and "outside" at the same time. And you realize, by watching it many times, that around the scene there's this black edging. Marjane Satrapi giving night kids I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily. Marjane Satrapi bored men long Business is very personal. For me, everything is extremely personal. With actors, the fact that I write helps, because when you say to an actor "Oh I want you to do it a little bit more ...," without saying what you want more of, then the actor doesn't know what to do. But if you can put into words exactly what you want, then the experience of writing is helpful with that. Marjane Satrapi actors want writing I chose the actors that I was in love with. I cannot work with people that I don't personally like a lot. They can be the best actor in the world, but if the first contact is not good, if I don't fall in love with them, then I don't want to work with them. It's impossible. Marjane Satrapi falling-in-love actors people Not everybody loves their children. If that was a fact, all the children would be happy and they would make happy adults. Instead, we have lots of miserable children that later became miserable adults. This is a fact. We cannot change that. Marjane Satrapi make-happy adults children
