“I'm not a politician. I don't know how to solve the problems of the world. But as an artist, I have one duty: to ask questions.”

“There are really two types of human being -- the ones who care about environment, who want a more just society; and the other ones who care about greed and war. So it’s not a question of East and West, and American and Iranian, and women and men.”

The only child of prosperous socialist idealist parents, Marjane Satrapi was sent to Vienna to school in 1984 to flee the oppressive regime and the revolution.  Prior to the revolution she had attended the Lycée Français in Tehran.  However, she later returned to Iran where she went to college and married - divorcing three years later.  She then finally left Iran to study at  Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts, and she now lives in Paris with her Swedish husband.  Prior to Persepolis the film, she was best known as an illustrator, graphic novelist and a children’s author.  She and Paronnaud are currently working on an adaptation of another of her graphic novels.