Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapiis an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children's book author...
NationalityIranian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth22 November 1969
CityRasht, Iran
believe evil people
George W.Bush can go and kill thousands of Iraqis every day. By making people believe they are the enemy, and not human beings any more. If evil has an address, a nationality, you can exterminate all of them. This is fascism.
two voice generosity
I loved Chiara Mastroianni voice, her talent, her generosity. We rehearsed for two months...She's a workaholic and perfectionist, like Vincent [ Paronnaud] and myself.
writing email knows
I almost don't know how to write an email.
character hands drawing
The most natural thing for us is drawing. The characters [in Persepolis] are hand drawn. We're not technical people. We don't know how to type.
unity narrative might
If you're not [Federico] Fellini you might make something very vulgar. Animation made it possible to maintain unity with all these different narratives.
black-and-white drawing consistency
The novels have done so well because the drawings are abstract, black-and-white. This adds to the universality of the story. "Persepolis" also has dreamlike moments, and the drawings help maintain cohesion and consistency.
unbearable life-is dies
Life is absolutely unbearable. And we're going to die.
thinking land people
With live-action I think we'd have lost the universal appeal of the Persepolis story. With live-action, it would have turned into a story of 'the Other' - people living in a distant land who don't look like us. It might have been exotic, but also a "Third-World" story.
years green three
I took three years of karate because of Bruce Lee, you know. I was a green belt.
iran identity west
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.
writing thinking interesting
I think with pictures; I'm a very lousy writer. If I write without pictures, I become this pathetic chick sitting somewhere trying to be interesting.
kids thinking vacation
Maybe the biggest problem is that there's no empathy. Nobody puts themselves in the place of others. Everyone thinks they are the only one to suffer. Or that they're the only ones who like ice cream or take their kids on vacation.
childhood tears normal
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.
religious thinking years
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.