Azar Nafisi

"Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth."

"I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality."

"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream."

"You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist."

"Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to protect the innocent."

"Thus the regime has deprived Iranian women not just of their present rights, but also of their history and their past."

"She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time."

"A novel is not an allegory... It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing."

"Most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed to immutable."