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

Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it.

I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.

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

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

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.