I Don't Make A Career Plan. I

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?

I Had This Fantasy That In A Democracy The Government Was The Population. So I Came To America And Got A Big Slap In My Face... Americans Were Not What I Thought. I Thought I Was Going To See Bastards And I Saw Nice People, Very Friendly To Me.

I Wrote The Plot [for The Persepolis ]and Vincent [paronnaud] And I Wrote And Discussed The Shooting Of The Script. Vincent Then Took Care Of The Production Design, The Actual Shooting, And What Was Going On Within Each Scene. It's Very Difficult, Though, To Draw A Line Between Who Did What. Because Vincent Would Say Something, And I Would Add Something, And At The End You Have This Film, Yet No Clear Idea Of Who Did What.

Human Beings Have A Lot Of Problems Identifying Themselves With Other Human Beings Who Don't Resemble Them Exactly. But There's Something About Drawing That Means That Anyone Can Identify To A Drawing. I Mean, People Can Identify Themselves With Donald Duck And Mickey Mouse.

Business Is Very Personal. For Me, Everything Is Extremely Personal. With Actors, The Fact That I Write Helps, Because When You Say To An Actor "oh I Want You To Do It A Little Bit More ...," Without Saying What You Want More Of, Then The Actor Doesn't Know What To Do. But If You Can Put Into Words Exactly What You Want, Then The Experience Of Writing Is Helpful With That.