Marjane Satrapi Quotes & Sayings

Nothing's worse than saying goodbye. It's a little like dying. — Marjane Satrapi

All this misjudgment that we have of each other is based on ignorance. The second you get to travel, you see that human beings, no matter where they come from, they are the same. — Marjane Satrapi

I was in love with Darth Vader. He was extremely sexy to me. Once I had almost a sexual dream about Darth Vader. At the moment he was about to pull his helmet off, my husband woke me up and I was so annoyed. I told him, "I was on my way to kiss Darth Vader." — Marjane Satrapi

I believe that am entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. — Marjane Satrapi

If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it's that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same. — Marjane Satrapi

Men's pride is situated in their scrotums. — Marjane Satrapi

Life is absolutely unbearable. And we're going to die. — Marjane Satrapi

Life is too short to be lived badly. — Marjane Satrapi

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

I don't make a career plan. I take things the way they come. — Marjane Satrapi

I don't want to quit smoking. I am convinced that if I quit smoking, the world would go to hell. — Marjane Satrapi

I want to be justice, love and the wrath of God all in one. — Marjane Satrapi

I like to make mechanical stuff. Once I make a film I have to do whatever I can make onstage I make it onstage. — Marjane Satrapi

It is dangerous when you start calling people from one part of the world terrorists or fanatic, and you reduce them to some abstract notion. If evil has a geographical place, and if the evil has a name, that is the beginning of fascism. Real life is not this way. You have fanatics and narrow-minded people everywhere. — Marjane Satrapi

It's true that, in Iran, women have half of the rights men do. And yet 66 per cent of students are women. — Marjane Satrapi

The movie business is not about the money. Of course, you need money to make the movie. If you have a small budget, adapt yourself. Having $200 million dollars doesn't ensure that you're definitely going to make a good movie. There's so many examples that prove that. — Marjane Satrapi

You are putting yourself in serious danger ... '
I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist. — Marjane Satrapi

For me, who loves to draw and who loves to write and cannot choose between one or the other, the comic is the best form. — Marjane Satrapi

Oh my!! How you've grown. Soon you'll be catching the Lord's balls. — Marjane Satrapi

If the majority of people were right, we'd be living in paradise. But we are not living in paradise, we are living in hell. What does it mean? That means the majority of people are wrong. So I never believed what people told me. — Marjane Satrapi

People, they think that animation is a style. Animation is just a technique. It's like, people, they think that comics is a style, like comics is a superhero story. Comic is just a narration, and is a medium, you can say any kind of story in comics and you can say of any kind of story in animation. — Marjane Satrapi

I'm a pacifist. I believe there are ways to solve the world's problems. Instead of putting all this money to create arms, I think countries should invest in scholarships for kids to study abroad. Perhaps they could become good and knowledgeable professors in their own countries. You need time for that kind of change, though. — Marjane Satrapi

The things that I do today are the things I did as a child. When I was a child, either I was drawing or I was taking all the kids off my street and I wanted to make shows - I was all the time making! The only thing is, now I know how to do it better, and now they give me money for it. — Marjane Satrapi

The key to wisdom is doubt! — Marjane Satrapi

I don't think that I have ever been rebellious. The thing is that I don't believe in people - what people tell me. I have to accept it in my own brain first. I don't listen to anyone, never. — Marjane Satrapi

Saying goodbye is a little like dying. — Marjane Satrapi

I am absolutely not a feminist, I am against stupidity, and if it comes from males or females, it doesn't change anything. If it means that women and men, they are equal, then OK, certainly I am a feminist. — Marjane Satrapi

I don't consider myself as a feminist but more a humanist. — Marjane Satrapi

I had so many professions before. I didn't want to do this particularly. It just happened. — Marjane Satrapi

For me, drawing is a question of death and life. Every day I draw, I write, I do something. — Marjane Satrapi

A Muslim fanatic and a Christian fanatic, a Jewish fanatic, a secular fanatic, an atheist fanatic, a communist fanatic - all of them are the same. The thinking that, 'If you don't think like me, that if you are not with me, then you are against me;' this is something to condemn. — Marjane Satrapi

I'm not a very good financing person. I don't even know how much money I have in my bank account. I never have opened one single envelope from the bank - they freak me out. — Marjane Satrapi

Is religion defending our physical integrity or is it just opposed to fashion? — Marjane Satrapi

When you say 'revolution' when you have only men outside, you know that something is going wrong. I'm not like a hardcore feminist, but I think that one of the things that makes the society advanced is equality between men and women. If half of the society is oppressed by the other half, it's not fine. — Marjane Satrapi

I'm not somebody that keeps the thing in her heart. I can get very angry for five minutes, but then it's finished. Once I've yelled, it's over. — Marjane Satrapi

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

A cat can never be well-trained because they're too independent. — Marjane Satrapi

I think with pictures; I'm a very lousy writer. If I write without pictures, I become this pathetic chick sitting somewhere trying to be interesting. — Marjane Satrapi

Cinema is a world of imagination. — Marjane Satrapi

America is a very special place. In this country, you have the best and the worst at the same time. Whatever you can imagine. — Marjane Satrapi

Would you like to become my wife?"
"Imbecile! What a question. It's my greatest dream!!! — Marjane Satrapi

It's not disgusting, that little skin that hangs?"
"The foreskin? No, it's okay. I think that generally speaking , a dick isn't really photogenic."
"I quite agree. — Marjane Satrapi

Graphic novels are not traditional literature, but that does not mean they are second-rate. Images are a way of writing. When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw, it seems a shame to choose one. I think it's better to do both. — Marjane Satrapi

Human beings have a lot of problems identifying themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. — Marjane Satrapi

I had this fantasy that in a democracy the government was the population. So I came to America and got a big slap in my face ... Americans were not what I thought. I thought I was going to see bastards and I saw nice people, very friendly to me. — Marjane Satrapi

Love is the opposite of good sense. — Marjane Satrapi

I call Iran home because no matter how long I live in France, and despite the fact that I feel also French after all these years, to me the word 'home' has only one meaning: Iran. I suppose it's that way for everyone: Home is the place where one is born and raised. — Marjane Satrapi

I don't watch many comic-book movies. But I loved 'Sin City.' — Marjane Satrapi

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

Drawing is the first language of the human being before writing. It's a transcription of how the human being sees reality, not reality itself. — Marjane Satrapi

Well, I would have much preferred to have had a normal childhood. I would have loved it if my greatest dilemma, at 14, was whether to go to Benetton for my pullovers. I would have preferred not to have cried all the tears I have cried. — Marjane Satrapi

Imagine if I cannot stand someone and every day he is here in my face, then I cannot work. Then, the whole time, I am thinking "I hate him, I hate him." But if I love him or I love her, then I can do anything, then I am comfortable. That's why it's so important to be surrounded by people that you really like. — Marjane Satrapi

I took three years of karate because of Bruce Lee, you know. I was a green belt. — Marjane Satrapi

The first writing of the human being was drawing, not writing. — Marjane Satrapi

I rushed to the living room to protect myself from I don't know what, behind my best friend, a book. — Marjane Satrapi

The world is not about Batman and Robin fighting the Joker; things are more complicated than that. And nothing is scarier than the people who try to find easy answers to complicated questions. — Marjane Satrapi

Image is an international language. — Marjane Satrapi

It's always extremely interesting to speak at colleges. My books are taught in many colleges in America and are part of the educational system, so it's really important to me. I don't believe in so many things in life, but something I believe in is education. — Marjane Satrapi

I'm a very individualistic person. That is why I don't belong to any political party or anything. I really believe in justice and freedom. — Marjane Satrapi

One isn't born courageous, one becomes it. — Marjane Satrapi

In any case, it's the cowardice of people like you who give dictators the chance to install themselves! — Marjane Satrapi

Anything that has a relationship with pleasure, we reject it. Eating, they talk about cholesterol; making love, they talk about AIDS; you talk about smoking, they talk about cancer. It's a very sick society that rejects pleasure. — Marjane Satrapi

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

Here's the problem: the description of the world is always reduced to yes or no, black or white. Superficial stories. Superhero stories. One side is the good one. The other one is evil. — Marjane Satrapi

It's cinematographic to smoke. Imagine Lauren Bacall without a cigarette. — Marjane Satrapi

People are so afraid to say the word 'comic'. It makes you think of a grown man with pimples, a ponytail and a big belly. Change it to 'graphic novel' and that disappears. — Marjane Satrapi

You have to be narcissistic to be an artist. You have to think you are the centre of the whole thing; otherwise, why do you create? The only thing is to recognise it, and then you make the best of it. — Marjane Satrapi

But violence is news, to a certain extent, and people don't want complicated news. Because as soon as you realize things are complicated, your life becomes more complicated. — Marjane Satrapi

Death, torture and prison are part of daily life for the youth of Iran. They are not like us, my friends and I at their age; they are not scared. They are not what we were. They hold hands and scream: 'Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! We are together!' They understand that no one will give them their rights; they must go get them. — Marjane Satrapi

Evil is international and the fanatic is international and universal. There is no difference between a Muslim fanatic, a Christian fanatic, even a secular fanatic. — Marjane Satrapi

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

My point of view when I make a book or I make a movie is to see the humanistic point of view. The point of view of the daily life of normal people. — Marjane Satrapi

I became the voice of a generation in a very surprising way, because many Iranians recognize themselves in it. But that is not what I wanted. — Marjane Satrapi

Prosperity consists of two things: tea after a meal, and a cigarette after tea. — Marjane Satrapi

I like making comics and animation because it takes such a long time. I'm not a runner of the 100 meter. I like marathons. The longer it takes, the better I feel. — Marjane Satrapi

It's fear that makes us lose our conscience. It's also what transforms us into cowards. — Marjane Satrapi

I like to be sad once in a while. You need it for your equilibrium. — Marjane Satrapi

I had learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor. — Marjane Satrapi

I am very bad at computers. I don't really know how to write email. — Marjane Satrapi

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

The Germans sell chemical weapons to Iran and Iraq. The wounded are then sent to Germany to be treated. Veritable human guinea pigs. — Marjane Satrapi

Of course, when you remember your life, you never remember anything in a chronological way. You always have pieces of memories, and some of these memories are full of details and very colorful. Some of them you just see the action and it's completely blank. — Marjane Satrapi

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

A real love story has to finish bad. That is what I think. — Marjane Satrapi

In every religion, you find the same extremists. — Marjane Satrapi

I wasn't made to take orders. My grandmother used to tell me: 'Laws are for idiots.' She was right. — Marjane Satrapi

Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself. — Marjane Satrapi

The information I have about Iran is second hand. — Marjane Satrapi

I'm not a religious person at all. — Marjane Satrapi

Here [in the USA], you have the best laws for freedom of expression. The problem is that expression can be bought by people who don't want you have it. Apparently, true patriotism destroys freedom of expression. — Marjane Satrapi

If it's a good work of adaptation, the book should remain a book and the film should remain a film, and you should not necessarily read the book to see the film. If you do need that, then that means that it's a failure. That is what I think. — Marjane Satrapi

The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself:
Are my trousers long enough?
Is my veil in place?
Can my make-up be seen?
Are they going to whip me?
No longer asks herself:
Where is my freedom of thought?
Where is my freedom of speech?
My life, is it liveable?
What's going on in the political prisons? — Marjane Satrapi

Smoking kills you, but life kills you, and if you don't want to die, go into a freezer when you are born and nothing will happen to you. — Marjane Satrapi

I don't like 'graphic novel.' It's a word that publishers created for the bourgeois to read comics without feeling bad. Comics is just a way of narrating - it's just a media type. — Marjane Satrapi

It's not like since I make comics I only read comics and since I make movies I will only go out and watch movies. Any kind of artistic expression interests me; it goes from literature to music to sculpture, painting; whatever is extremely inspiring for me becomes a reference also for me. — Marjane Satrapi

The way that you remember your life, it's never linear. You have flashes of different moments of your life, and the flashes aren't equal; they have different styles. — Marjane Satrapi

I had two major activities as a child. I was trying to put on shows with kids in my street, or I was drawing. Actually, what I'm doing now is exactly what I was doing then. Either I'm drawing, or I'm gathering people for a common project. The only difference is that now they are paying me for that. — Marjane Satrapi

In the West, people don't have any real problems. It's all based on bad conscience, a very Christian notion. I don't have any bad conscience. If there's a God that created us, if I am bad, it's his fault. — Marjane Satrapi

I think animation is like running a marathon, and making a movie is like a 100 meter sprint. The question is: are you a marathon man or are you a sprinter? I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily. — Marjane Satrapi

With animation, if something does not fit, you always have the time to change it. When you make a live-action movie, when your days of shooting are over, they are over forever. — Marjane Satrapi