Quotes by Iranian authors

"The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich"

"When Karim and his group heard about Saddam coming, they wanted to kill him, but fate had other ideas"

"Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy"

"He who is a slave to his stomach seldom worships God"

"Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance"

"The best loved by God are those that are rich, yet have the humility of the poor, and those that are poor and have the magnanimity of the rich"

"I fear God and next to God I mostly fear them that fear him not"

"A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation"

"Oman overall has great animal and plant biodiversity because it has mountains, desert, coastal areas and rich coral reefs"

"Most of the birds of the Old World can be found here, as Oman is on a strategic route for migrating birds"

"When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body"

"The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together"

"An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity"

"VX is now a dead issue... It is political, really"

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

"Image is an international language"

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

"There's an 800 kilometer border between Iran and Afghanistan"

"When we began filming, these people had legs, but as we were filming, they had been injured and they were brought to the hospital to have their legs amputated, and that's where we found them and asked them to come and be part of the film"

"I've heard about brothers making films, but I've never heard about whole families making films like this. We didn't intend to do it; it wasn't something that we planned - it just gradually happened"

"I myself had to grow a longer beard and Afghan clothes. I was in danger of being kidnapped by smugglers, though I didn't know it at the time"

"Because there is so little room for expression otherwise, a lot of people love cinema because they find it a way of expressing themselves"

"Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity"

"When I came out, and for many years afterwards, it had become a habit for me to sit and read and read and read, like an obsession. I would take 20 books, and not come out until I'd finished them. It took me a while to change that habit"

"Do you know that every day, 10 people in Afghanistan are injured by landmines? It will continue for the next 50 years, because the country has the largest number of landmines in the world"

"Usually people like to categorise artists. With my films, I categorise people: if I know which one of my movies you like, I can tell which kind of a person you are"

"The question in their minds was, why did the outside world, and particularly the Western world, produce all these landmines, and send them to Afghanistan? This business must be stopped. It's a dirty business to produce such a horrible device"

"I wanted to be left alone to live my life, so it was very easy for people to pretend that they were me"

"A problem was the lack of cooperation of the Afghan community itself. The women, though living in Iran, were under cover and not willing to participate in the film, and none of the ethnic groups were willing to work together or be together"

"The Buddhas had to be destroyed by the Taliban to get the world thinking about Afghanistan"