Our lives Quotes by Shirin Neshat

I find that through the study of women, you get to the heart - the truth - of the culture.

— Shirin Neshat

Being political is an integral part of being Iranian. Our lives are defined by politics.

— Shirin Neshat

I believe we don't need to widen the divide between the West and Islam. Rather, we need to build dialogue to encourage tolerance and…

— Shirin Neshat

We're either awake or we're sleeping. During the time that we're awake, we work very hard at denying things, mainly because we have to…

— Shirin Neshat

Every Iranian artist dreams of the black market. We don't care about making money.

— Shirin Neshat

Art is our weapon. Culture is a form of resistance.

— Shirin Neshat

Poets use metaphors and symbolism to construct images. I construct my images in the same way, except that I am using a different form.

— Shirin Neshat

I'm really interested in social justice, and if an artist has a certain power of being heard and voicing something important, it's right to…

— Shirin Neshat

Beautiful woman wrapped in chadors, with huge machine guns in their hands. Brilliant, shocking, amazingly contradictory images. They compelled me to deeply investigate these…

— Shirin Neshat

In this Western world that we have, culture risks being [only] a form of entertainment.

— Shirin Neshat

My mother is my last point of security in relation to my past, and if that breaks, I will not ever have that type…

— Shirin Neshat

To me, editing is not something you can do in a rush because the artists themselves are not always their own best editors. Time…

— Shirin Neshat