Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis

"We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it."

"I rushed to the living room to protect myself from I don't know what, behind my best friend, a book."

"The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough?Is my veil in place?Can my make-up be seen?Are they going to whip me?No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought?Where is my freedom of speech?My life, is it liveable?What's going on in the political prisons?"

"They found records and video-cassettes at their place, a deck of cards, a chess set. In other words, everything that's banned."

"When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression."

"I have always thought that if women's hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald."