Explore Quotes by Marjane Satrapi

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

All big changes of the world come from words.

That's the story of life - when you start enjoying people, it's always too late.

A real love story has to finish bad. That is what I think.

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

A Muslim fanatic and a Christian fanatic, a Jewish fanatic, a secular fanatic, an atheist fanatic, a communist fanatic - all of them are the same. The thinking that, 'If you don't think like me, that if you are not with me, then you are against me;' this is something to condemn.

If you have a little sensibility or a heart, you have all the reason to be depressed once in a while. But the depression is like a motor for creation. I need a little bit of depression, a bit of acid in my stomach, to be able to create. When I'm happy, I just want to dance.

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.

Culture and education are the lethal weapons against all kinds of fundamentalism.

I really didn't know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde. I was born with religion. At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet. This was few years before the revolution.

If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it's that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.

I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the West. I had no identity. I didn't even know anymore why I was living.

In every religion, you find the same extremists.

If today I have to make a political statement, it is, 'I love beauty.' I think beauty makes people better.

Life is too short to be lived badly.

Anyway, that's how it is! Either they obey the law, or they're expelled!! And make sure they wear their veils correctly..." - "If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your moustache!" My father actually said that.

Nothing's worse than saying goodbye. It's a little like dying.

Whether this tale be true or false, none can tell, for none were there to witness it themselves.

When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.

Teacher: What do you want to be when you grow up? Marji: I'll be a prophet.

The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough?' Is my veil in place?' Can my make-up be seen?' Are they going to whip me?' No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought?' Where is my freedom of speech?' My life, is it livable?' What's going on in the political prisons?