Abbas Kiarostami famous quotes

04-17-2025

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

#Country #Thinking #Tree
I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Giving #Contentment #Pieces
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!
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Selfish #Mean #Marketing
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

#Looks #Able
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

#People #Lazy #Cinema
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

#Home #Views #Car
When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Finals #Looks #Emptiness
A movie is about human beings, about humanity.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Humanity #Humans
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

#Race #Differences #World
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

#Believe #Cinema
I never really learned photography.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Photography
I think I really produce my best work in Iran.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Thinking #Iran #Produce
I think violence can never be justified.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Thinking #Violence #Justified
I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Listening #Mind #Stories
If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Iran #Politician #Businessman
In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Order #Culture
The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Running #Iran
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

#Thinking #People #Want
I have no advice for anyone on how to live.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

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

#Voice #Limits #Culture
I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Thinking #Matter #Film
My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that's my perception of life.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Expression #Perception #Way
I never reflect or convey that which I have not experienced myself.
-- Abbas Kiarostami
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

#Thinking #Talking #People
There were years when Hitchcock was like a master to me, but now I think he's so artificial. I can watch films and say how technically beautiful they are, but I'm not impressed by any technicality.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Beautiful #Thinking #Years
In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Darkness #Poetry Is #Stills
A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Art #Perception #Works Of Art
Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Opportunity #Grandchildren #Giving
Everybody knows that I am not usually patient enough to actually sit down and watch one of my own films from the beginning to the end - I never do.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Down And #Watches #Patient
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.
-- Abbas Kiarostami

#Cities #Village #Towns

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