Top 33 Asghar Farhadi Quotes

I would have had the same narrative, regardless of the atmosphere and the restrictions.

There are those who simply want to live their lives, and feel they cannot live the way they want to in Iran. Others are ideologically motivated: They will stay no matter what and try to change things.

If you give an answer to your viewer, your film will simply finish in the movie theatre. But when you pose questions, your film actually begins after people watch it. In fact, your film will continue inside the viewer.

After ‘A Separation,’ I found it much easier to work in Iran because I worked with very enthusiastic people who were very involved in the work, and that facilitated a number of things. It made it possible to iron out some of the difficulties found by other filmmakers in Iran.

I tend to jot down moments, lines, interactions that don’t really make any sense. I try and explain these scattered notes to my close friends, and they become more and more logical. I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

When I came to know theater, drama became valuable to me.

It’s very difficult to talk about religion in Iran because religion has gotten so mixed up with politics.

Is there one specific source that determines correct morality and everybody should follow that? Or should individuals come up with following that source or not depending on their situation?

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

Classical tragedy was the war between good and evil. We wanted evil to be defeated and good to be victorious. But the battle in modern tragedy is between good and good. And no matter which side wins, we’ll still be heartbroken.

I can’t make pronouncements about the entirety of Iranian cinema, because there’s such a great number of filmmakers and because of the diversity of points of view and filmmaking attitudes.

We have the wrong impression of life. We think the very big incidents of our lives are consequences of huge dilemmas or major decisions. If we paid attention, we’d realize that the determining incidents in our lives are ordinary things.

It’s not some big event that creates the drama, it’s the little things of everyday life that bring about that drama.

I like storytelling movies and more than that I like historical movies; and I think someday I’ll definitely make a movie about the past 50 years history.

In most cultures, men represent tradition and women represent change and future. Women, because of their ability to give birth, are more connected to future. Men tend to keep the status quo.

I gained a great deal from the period during which I worked in theater and I value those things a great deal.

I feel it’s important to talk about the complex issues affecting us.

It’s the governments that create the problems. People are fun; people get along. People in Iran really love Americans. There is no problem between us.

Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.

The fact is I’m not making a film in order to draw pictures or make images about Iran.

There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that’s a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.

When I decide to write a story, I don’t think too much about what I want it to be, I just let things come naturally and this is how it turns out. It’s just how my subconscious works.

I think it’s insulting to an audience to make them sit and watch a film and then give them a message in one sentence.

During all of my writing career – this includes when I was writing plays and my other screenplays – I don’t recall ever writing a negative character, which does not mean that my characters aren’t flawed or do not make mistakes. In actual fact, they all are quite flawed.

I don’t have a problem if someone else were to say that one of my characters is a good one and another one is not and is a bad one. I try myself not to have any judgment towards my characters, but certainly the audience might.

I think every human being in the world appreciates being encouraged and acknowledged.

I have two daughters.

The process of writing is like creating a game of dominoes: The first domino creates the second incident, and so forth until the end.

Iranian filmmakers are not passive. They fight whenever they can, as creative expression means a lot to them. The restrictions and censorship in Iran are a bit like the British weather: one day it’s sunny, the next day it’s raining. You just have to hope you walk out into the sunshine.

For me, character comes from a specific condition or situation. I cannot really define a character outside that situation.

For the Americans, it is not attractive to hear what the similarities are between them and the Iranian people. It is attractive to hear how different the Iranians are.

I lived in Paris for two years with my family. I would roam the streets of Paris during the day for a few hours in the subway, on the streets, and I listened to the French language, and I got a sense of the rhythm and the melody of the language.

There are many actors I really like and whose work I admire.