War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems, too.

Haris Pasovic

Art is a primal need - even under siege, especially under siege.

Haris Pasovic

Many have asked me, 'Why have a film festival in the middle of a war?' But they have it backwards. The question is, 'Why have a war in the middle of a film festival?'

Haris Pasovic

Football is probably the most democratic human activity. It belongs to everyone... to poor and rich, illiterate and educated, to all races, cultures, and nations.

Haris Pasovic

There's no real theatre without taking risks.

Haris Pasovic

Theatre, for me, is about providing to the audience a new and exciting experience.

Haris Pasovic

The U.S. Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alas, that is not the case everywhere in the world.

Haris Pasovic

'Hamlet' is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture.

Haris Pasovic

Yes, I am mad - like the Marquis de Sade was mad, like Giordano Bruno was mad, like Antonin Artaud was mad.

Haris Pasovic

The 21st century is significantly different from the 20th century. The old models will not hold anymore. More and more, we are one people on Earth. We need to share our problems.

Haris Pasovic

Art is freedom. If we don't have that element, we don't feel human anymore. Art is not decoration or a function. Before all that, art is art. This connection to meaning - our inner, intuitive knowledge - is something.

Haris Pasovic

Europe is a much more complex historical, cultural, and geographical concept than is envisaged in the reduced approach by the European Union.

Haris Pasovic

War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems, too.

Haris Pasovic

In war, everything changes. You are very selective of what you do because everything you do can be the last thing you do in your life.

Haris Pasovic

I work in theater, so I am always working in front of empty chairs. They represent a future presence. They are never just chairs.

Haris Pasovic

The more film festivals, theatrical shows, and music performances and visual arts we have, the less chances there are for war. Art is hope, and it is found in hope, and that's why we need to share our experiences and cherish art.

Haris Pasovic

The meaning of art in a time of suffering, a time of war, is much more intense. People are more focused.

Haris Pasovic

Art can articulate new ideas.

Haris Pasovic

I grew up in adoration of writers like Hemingway, George Orwell, Anna Akhmatova, and that has always been my idea about the artist - that you have to be a brave and freedom-loving person.

Haris Pasovic

To come to the theatre, people have to make arrangements, change their clothes, find a babysitter, find a parking space - and they don't come after hard work to hear a lecture.

Haris Pasovic

My theatre is not a conventional one. It is bold, serious, funny, confronting. It is anything but boring.

Haris Pasovic