Abbas Kiarostami Quotes

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• 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, Fronts

  "Abbas Kiarostami's best shot". Interview with Abbas Kiarostami, www.theguardian.com. July 29, 2009.

  109 Copy quote

• 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

  115 Copy quote

• I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Morning, Sleep, Night

  73 Copy quote

• 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

  "A life in cinema: Abbas Kiarostami" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. June 12, 2009.

  73 Copy quote

• 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

  Moving, Thinking, Able

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

  28 Copy quote

• 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

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

  77 Copy quote

• In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Darkness, Poetry Is, Stills

  45 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Knowing, Different, Way

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

  15 Copy quote

• 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

  "Cannes 2012: Abbas Kiarostami: 'The world is my workshop'". Interview with Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. May 28, 2012.

  58 Copy quote

• A movie is about human beings, about humanity.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Humanity, Humans, Human Beings

  50 Copy quote

• In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Order, Culture, Universal

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• 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

  Reflection, Men, Mirrors

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. March 17, 2011.

  9 Copy quote

• Maybe more than a teller, I am a story listener. I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind. All of my films are a collection of small stories that have been told to me.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Listening, Mind, Remember

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  12 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Real, Love Is, Uncertain

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  "With Borrowed Eyes: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with David Sterritt, www.filmcomment.com. July/August 2000.

  50 Copy quote

• 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, Rays

  42 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Expression, Perception, Way

  41 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Believe, Omission, Creation

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• 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

  Love Is, Thinking, Deny

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

  42 Copy quote

• I have no advice for anyone on how to live.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Advice

  "Cannes 2012: Abbas Kiarostami: 'The world is my workshop'" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. May 28, 2012.

  26 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Voice, Culture, Limits

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

  43 Copy quote

• I think it was [Jean-Luc] Godard who said that life is nothing but a bad copy of film, but then our ambition must be to make better films and better shapes of forms that are given in life.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Ambition, Thinking, Shapes

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. March 17, 2011.

  27 Copy quote

• 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, Doe

  "Landscapes of the mind" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. April 16, 2005.

  37 Copy quote

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

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Culture, Links, Produce

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

  20 Copy quote

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