I am deeply convinced that happiness does not exist in this world.

I love walking down the street and seeing faces and drama and happiness and sadness and dirt and cleanliness.

So even though I consider myself a fairly upbeat person, energetic and things like that, I never do very well on happiness tests.

Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no matter how benign their intentions, present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries, as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west.

I don't have the recipe for happiness, but I think the engine is simply having the desire.

When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was to escape what I thought was the country and get to a city. Probably film and television had influenced me so much, I really thought the key to happiness was living a very artificial life in a penthouse in New York with martini glasses.

Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs, it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually, just as we monitor money and GDP.

Each person is living for himself his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.

Every happiness is a hostage to fortune.

Joe E. Lewis said, 'Money doesn't buy happiness but it calms the nerves.' And that is how I feel about a film being well-received.