The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.

All big changes of the world come from words.

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

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

Image is an international language.

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

My mother always told me I had to do 100 times better than a man. I had to work hard at maths, and learn four languages.

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

The information I have about Iran is second hand.

I'm very open and never write what I'm going to say. Speeches bore everybody else. I have to freestyle. Every time, from one program to another, everything changes and I improvise.

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.

There are things that I love in Iranian cinema and things that I don't. In Iranian cinema, you have to use metaphor because you are living under a dictatorship.

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.