Marjane Satrapi Writing Quotations

The first writing of the human being was drawing, not writing.

For me, drawing is a question of death and life. Every day I draw, I write, I do something.

I am very bad at computers. I don't really know how to write email.

I'm very open and never write what I'm going to say. Speeches bore everybody else. I have to freestyle. Every time, from one program to another, everything changes and I improvise.

Drawing is the first language of the human being before writing. It's a transcription of how the human being sees reality, not reality itself.

Writing is not for me. I completely lose my sense of humor when I write. I become extremely pathetic, very sensational. Images give me possibilities that I don't have with words.

Graphic novels are not traditional literature, but that does not mean they are second-rate. Images are a way of writing. When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw, it seems a shame to choose one. I think it's better to do both.

For me, who loves to draw and who loves to write and cannot choose between one or the other, the comic is the best form.

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.

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.

I almost don't know how to write an email.

Drawing - it's the first language of human beings, before writing, before even talking, before words, human beings was drawing.