SATRAPI: Well all of those things. But I believe there is no culture clash between east and west. If people are educated, they have culture, and if they are open minded, no matter where they come from, then there is no clash. The clash comes from ignorance. Many people say that I made it clear in this book that it is very anti-theology. And I say, 'no, it is not anti-theology, it’s anti-repression.' That was how [this book] started. That was what I was most focused on, remembering. Remembering how it feels to when you are 6 yrs old, 10 years old going through that.

SATRAPI: Absolutely. Education is everything. I really believe that it is a weapon of mass construction. If you want to build something it has to go through education. Education opens your mind. Education makes you understand that the other one is exactly like you.

SATRAPI: Yes! You realize how similar we are.

SATRAPI: No matter what the government is, it doesn't stop people from thinking. Being in a free place doesn't necessarily make you free in your mind, either. Plus the fact that we knew we were living in a dictatorship opened our eyes even more.

SATRAPI: It makes us a schizophrenic people because we have to have behavior outside, but inside we are the same. And you have to find ways to transcend your situation. That's why I believe in human beings, because no matter what they do to us, I think, in your mind, if you are free, if you have a brain and you use it, than you cannot take any kind of [nonsense]. I consider everybody who is against repression my friends. No matter where they come from. They are my people; they are my nation. My nation is full of people who think clearly with the brain and with emotion.

READ: Our readers are American students in middle school. They are adolescents,and they, too, can relate to the themes in Persepolis.

SATRAPI: Right. The nation of brains.

SATRAPI: Well, it's not really a documentary about my life. It is based on my experiences, but it is not all true. For example, there is a scene in the book and the movie where extremists come and kill our neighbor. This thing happened, but not when I was 12. It happened when I was 18, and when I came back from Austria. But for narrative reasons, I wanted to my coming back from Austria to be the end of the war because I didn’t want to restart the war. In storytelling, it’s very important to know where to put the events. But when you work this way, even my own character becomes fictional to myself. Its from my own experiences and to convey my own feelings. The reality itself doesn’t interest me so much. The impression it has on the reader, the feeling, this is much more important.

SATRAPI: I have been thinking about that. I never think about it when I work, but now that I look back. It is like a baby growing up in a baby. It doesn't have first one eye, then one arm and the one leg, the other leg. All of them grow up at the same time. Once in a while I can start writing, but always have the drawing in mind, or I draw, but still I have the text in mind, but always it happens at the same time.

SATRAPI: Oh my poor parents! Putting themselves in danger for two stupid posters. They could have just told me [no], but they did understand how important it was to have these posters. Like all the other adolescents in the world, we loved pop music, but also, since our country was cut off from the rest of the world, this was a way to have the feeling that we were connected to the rest.

SATRAPI: Oh yes, they did so. My parents say that your kid doesn't belong to you, so if you love your kid, you let them go. That's what they did. They were very brave, I think.