Happy birthday, Abbas Kiarostami! Here are some quotes from the filmmaker.

“It’s said that in the beginning was the word, but for me the beginning is always an image. When I think about a conversation, it always starts with images. And what I love about photography is the inscription of a single moment: it’s completely ephemeral. You take the photograph, and one second later, everything has changed.”

“From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn’t want to narrate something, I didn’t want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing.”

“When we are in front of an abstract painting, we have the license to interpret in any way we want. Or music—music is a medium that we might not understand, but that we feel and enjoy. But in the case of cinema many expect to receive a clear and unified message, but what I’m suggesting is that a film could be experienced as a poem, a painting, or a piece of music.”

“As for my sense of rhythm, I’ve never been a fan of commercial cinema with its fast pace and its excitement. My own life doesn’t have a very fast rhythm, I live slowly and my films reflect my life’s pace and rhythm.”

“I believe that when we don’t see things in their full details that their impact is stronger; their impressions last longer. It also gives the audience an opportunity to use their imagination: by just hearing the sound they can see the images in their creative mind without actually seeing them on the screen. This is actually an invitation for the spectators to participate in the creation of a work.”

“Light: the greatest painter and photographer of all. At every single moment of our lives we see different images, different pictures.”