“Choosing the right script is difficult for me. I look for a story that’s interesting to me, and I look for a director who I think can bring something fresh to it...You always have a choice whether or not to do a film and you have to rely on your instinct.”
“The more emotional connection you have to what you're doing, the easier it makes it in the long run because you're vested on different levels. You care.”
“I've made 47 movies and I've got several awards, and there's a moment when you think you owe something to society. I have access to camera and film, and I know how. The Cuban case is too scandalous not to talk about.”
“I think there's a lot of drama in a little person in a lot of space, I'd rather see the soprano die of tuberculosis in a long shot, for instance, than 29 close-ups of her going cough, cough, cough.”
“When I was a small kid I swam in films. My father was a film distributor. He bought films in Europe and showed them in Tehran where we lived. When I was 12 years old, I bought a second-hand 8mm camera and started to shoot my own Dracula films.”