Abbas Kiarostami Quotes & Sayings

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

I think I really produce my best work in Iran. — Abbas Kiarostami

In real life, when someone's partner calls them, they can tell from the first word their partner says what their mood is. — Abbas Kiarostami

It's very true that non-actors feel more comfortable in front of a digital camera, without the lights and the large crowd around them, and we arrive at much more intimate moments with them. — Abbas Kiarostami

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

You won't believe it but
I quench my thirst
by drinking from a mirage. — Abbas Kiarostami

In this type of cinema, whether working with actors or non-actors, as much as you do direct them, if you allow yourself to be directed by them, then the end result will be much more pleasing. The real and individual strengths of the actors is allowed to be expressed and is something that does affect the audience very deeply. — Abbas Kiarostami

Close-Up is a very particular film in my oeuvre. It's a film that was made in a very particular way; mainly because I didn't really have the time to think about how to go about making the film. — Abbas Kiarostami

Those same people, when they leave the theater, when they look behind the curtains they are curious about their neighbors, they can guess if their neighbors are siblings or a couple, how old they are, what their occupation is. They are curious about each other and they can understand each other without being fed information. Why should it be different in cinema? — Abbas Kiarostami

I do believe in [Robert] Bresson's method of creation through omission, not through addition. — Abbas Kiarostami

When I met Akira Kurosawa in Japan, one question he asked me was, "How did you actually make the children act the way they do? I do have children in my films but I find that I reduce and reduce their presence until I have to get rid of them because there's no way that I can direct them." — Abbas Kiarostami

Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved. — Abbas Kiarostami

Having an international voice is not really about whether we speak Persian or any other language. — Abbas Kiarostami

I wasn't searching for a common denominator - I started wondering about the challenge of working in other cultures. What I reached was the sudden acknowledgment of the universal aspect of filmmaking. — Abbas Kiarostami

Autumn afternoon:
a sycamore leaf
falls softly
and rests
on its own shadow — Abbas Kiarostami

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. — Abbas Kiarostami

Despite the great advantages of digital video and the great ease of using the medium, still those who use it have first to understand the sensitivities of how to best use the medium. — Abbas Kiarostami

To me, AIDS is an international epidemic and every country can be affected by it. Therefore, it can be discussed on an international level. Unfortunately, AIDS doesn't require a visa. — Abbas Kiarostami

My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that's my perception of life. — Abbas Kiarostami

While shooting Ten I was sitting in the backseat, but I didn't interfere. Sometimes, I was following in another car, so I was not even present on the "set", because I thought they would work better in my absence. — Abbas Kiarostami

I think the contrast between these two in the professional world of cinema mattered to me. One who has reached the ultimate point of being a star, who knows how to do everything very well, facing another person who would throughout the making of the film transfer his anxiety to both of us, to me and to Juliette, as to whether or not he would be capable of fulfilling his role. This in itself created a challenge that was actually very good for me, since I hadn't ever counterposed two such performers before, creating that challenge between someone who knows their part and someone who doesn't. — Abbas Kiarostami

This kind of directing, I think, is very similar to being a football coach. You prepare your players and place them in the right places, but once the game is on, there's nothing much you can do - you can smoke a cigarette or get nervous, but you can't do much. — Abbas Kiarostami

A good movie is made by an initial burst of energy, the way that, when you are in school, your class exercises are always better than your final projects. — Abbas Kiarostami

The world is my workshop. It is not my home. — Abbas Kiarostami

I really think that I don't mind people sleeping during my films, because I know that some very good films might prepare you for sleeping or falling asleep or snoozing. It's not to be taken badly at all. This is something I really mean. — Abbas Kiarostami

Not that I ever felt the necessity of proving that all human beings suffer the same way, feel joy the same way, but it happened on my way - when I get close to these people, just by the simple intervention of translation I can actually reach them and ask them something, and their reaction is as I expected. I see that the relationship goes so smoothly, and I realize that cultural languages and specificities are nothing but simple obstacles that you can easily overcome. It's obvious that human beings are the same wherever they are. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

I'm not sure that my films show the reality of life in Iran; we show different aspects of life. Iran is a very extensive and expansive place, and sometimes, even for us who live there, some of the realities are very hard to comprehend. — Abbas Kiarostami

If I do continue to have the opportunity to work in Iran, that's very much what I'd prefer to do. — Abbas Kiarostami

My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated. — Abbas Kiarostami

The nature that is in the location of my films can be seen in my photography, and I want my films to become closer to my photography and more distant from storytelling. It is true that these are completely separate milieus, but in my opinion, the ideal situation for me is for these two areas - photography and cinema - to become closer to one another. — Abbas Kiarostami

A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

In my opinion the man looks at the relationship in a more bitter fashion and the woman still holds great hopes. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it. — Abbas Kiarostami

I don't have very complete scripts for my films. I have a general outline and a character in my mind, and I make no notes until I find the character who's in my mind in reality. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

The starting point and the ending point are nothing but two arbitrary choices. You make them as in soccer games, where they chose that it's 90 minutes, not less and not more. But the choices are the responsibility of the filmmaker. You have to choose to join the story at an arbitrary point, and you leave it at an arbitrary point. — Abbas Kiarostami

What I am trying to say is that it is not without any value. The value of copies is that they can direct us towards the original. I was recently at the Louvre Museum and I was filming people who were viewing the Mona Lisa. I noticed the number of ordinary people, astonished, mouths agape, standing still for long stretches looking at the work, and I wondered, "Where does this come from? Are these people all art connoisseurs?" They are like me; through the years, we've seen this work in our schoolbooks or art history books, but when we stand before the original, we hold our breath. — Abbas Kiarostami

When we are in front of an abstract painting, we have the license to interpret in any way we want. Or music - music is a medium that we might not understand, but that we feel and enjoy. But in the case of cinema many expect to receive a clear and unified message, but what I'm suggesting is that a film could be experienced as a poem, a painting, or a piece of music. — Abbas Kiarostami

The [Iranian] government grapples with more important issues and we can maybe say that these films don't really exist for them. It's not about whether they like it or don't; it's just not very important to them. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

The Iranian government as a whole has no relationship with my films. They're not particularly interested, perhaps this kind of cinema is not very interesting to them. — Abbas Kiarostami

The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn't directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film. — Abbas Kiarostami

I don't like reverse-angle shots - I find them very fake and very untruthful to the viewer. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

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

I think, just as footballers play better at home, maybe film-makers, too, create better at home, even though the rules of football are the same wherever you go. — Abbas Kiarostami

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. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

I really haven't seen The Report in a long time. I don't have a copy, but I'll have to see it again. I think it would be good to put both these men next to each other. — Abbas Kiarostami

I think life is so difficult to catch, it's so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it. — Abbas Kiarostami

If we're not going to take full advantage of digital, then 35mm is a better medium. Especially for shooting dramas - I have no problem with 35mm. — Abbas Kiarostami

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. — Abbas Kiarostami

If you catch me coming out of a film, when I'm emotionally involved, I can tell you at that moment why I like it - but to talk about it years later is not logical to me. — Abbas Kiarostami

Some movies bring out the creativity in you. Every single audience member can become creative in the face of a particular movie. If you happen to like my films, it's because my films provide a bed for you on which you can find your creativity. The Hollywood movies do not provide that for you. — Abbas Kiarostami

I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political. — Abbas Kiarostami

I have no advice for anyone on how to live. — Abbas Kiarostami

There are certainties in existence, but love is something much harder to define than light and dark, life and death. I think saying you are "like" someone in love sounds right. — Abbas Kiarostami

The digital camera has given me total freedom and a different way of filming. — Abbas Kiarostami

I never really learned photography. — Abbas Kiarostami

There is violence in real life but I would never impose violence in a film just to attract the audience. — Abbas Kiarostami

When we start shooting I don't have rehearsals with characters at all. So, rather than pulling them towards myself, I travel closer to them; it's very much closer to the real person than anything I try to create. So I give them something but I also take from them. — Abbas Kiarostami

In my films, I try to give people as little information as possible, which is still much more than what they get in real life. I feel that they should be grateful for the little bit of information I give them. — Abbas Kiarostami

When the film [Certified Copy] was in the Cannes Festival, I realized that the fact of having it shot in a different culture, in a different language, in a different setting, that wasn't mine and that I didn't belong to, gave me a totally different relationship to the film. When I was sitting in the audience during the official screening in Cannes, I didn't feel that it was my film. — Abbas Kiarostami

A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience. — Abbas Kiarostami

We don't look at each other [in the car], 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. — Abbas Kiarostami

There are at least two retrospectives of my work each year in some country. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

I thought that I had been asked every kind of question possible. — Abbas Kiarostami

The experience of life teaches us that being like someone in love is more real, because everything is uncertain. — Abbas Kiarostami

It is a very important film, Life And Nothing More, in that what was filmed was inspired by a journey I had made just three days after an earthquake. And I speak not only of the film itself but also of the experience of being in that place, where only three days before 50,000 people had died. — Abbas Kiarostami

I think I'm no different to my friends who are doctors or businessmen or architects - we all started watching films of the golden age together. But whether I'm making films or writing poetry or doing photography, it's very much rooted in my sense of unease. And that's really where everything goes back to. — Abbas Kiarostami

Morning is white,
evening is black,
a gray sorrow
in between. — Abbas Kiarostami

I saw this French woman, this English man in Italy. It was a film [Certified Copy] I knew well, but I had already seen it, and I was familiar with it, and I had no feeling of anxiety or responsibility toward it. — Abbas Kiarostami

As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us. — Abbas Kiarostami

Therefore, when you see the end result, it's difficult to see who's the director, me or them. Ultimately, everything belongs to the actors - we just manage the situation. — Abbas Kiarostami

In order to be able to cooperate with a child, you have to come down to below their level in order to communicate with them. Actors are also like children. — Abbas Kiarostami

When you look at nature, you see a hidden mystery that gives a special flavor to the photograph. — Abbas Kiarostami

As long as I take the responsibility of the choice, I have to make the choice that is as right as possible. — Abbas Kiarostami

I think violence can never be justified. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

I do believe that a film like Ten could never have been made with a 35mm camera. The first part of the film lasts 17 minutes, and by the end of that part, the kid has totally forgotten the camera. — 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

Following the mirage
here I am at the water's edge
without the feeling of thirst. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

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

I was mentioning with the digital camera, maybe this new fashion of filmmaking gives a closer look of what life may be like. But it's still nothing but a copy. — Abbas Kiarostami

My car is 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. — Abbas Kiarostami

When I find the character, I try to spend time with them and get to know them very well. Therefore my notes are not from the character that I had in my mind before, but are instead based on the people I've met in real life. — Abbas Kiarostami

I don't generally derive my stories from novels. I try to turn into film things I have felt or experienced. — Abbas Kiarostami

I am still very surprised that I managed to make that film [Close Up]. When I actually look back on that film, I really feel that I was not the director but instead just a member of the audience. — Abbas Kiarostami

With the RED, I didn't have this impression at all. I felt that it was as heavy as a film camera. Having this great crew, with the DP and his assistants, I found it making as much of an impression as a very big film camera. I didn't relate to it as much. I remember avoiding it during the shooting rather than paying attention to it. — Abbas Kiarostami

I thought that choosing a non-professional was a condition for me, because it would allow Juliette to have a less-professional way of acting. It would challenge her performance as a professional actress. — Abbas Kiarostami

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

I think that if you're a digital thinker, you can use a digital camera. — Abbas Kiarostami