In Iranian cinema, all the lying takes place before making the film. In order to be able to make the film, you have to lie.

I am really bothered when I see my friends facing problems back in Iran, but I tell them that not all the doors are shut.

In Kurdistan, there's a lot of hardship - a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

If I hadn't turned out to be a filmmaker, I would have been a musician.

We need to incentivize states across our country to spend on higher education and ensure that we go back to allowing people to go to college tuition-free.

I started elocution lessons because I was being teased, and I had a brilliant drama teacher. At the age of 14, I appeared at the National Theatre in 'The Crucible.'

My failures may be my greatest successes. It is in failure that I have often drawn closer to God, learn to depend more on Him than myself, gained self-knowledge, and seen things in their right perspective.

Comics are a particularly esoteric field where you really learn how to do it, by doing it or by learning from other practitioners.