“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.”
―
Azar Nafisi,
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“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.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model.” ― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir
“Memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“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.” ― Azar Nafisi
“I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.” ― Azar Nafisi, Things I've Been Silent About
“None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels--the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with someone you loathe.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Imagine you are walking down a leafy path…The sun is receding, and you are walking alone, caressed by the breezy light of the late afternoon. Then suddenly, you feel a large drop on your right arm. Is it raining? You look up. The sky is still deceptively sunny…seconds later another drop. Then, with the sun still perched in the sky, you are drenched in a shower of rain. This is how memories invade me, abruptly and unexpectedly…” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Reality has become so intolerable, she said, so bleak, that all I can paint now are the colors of my dreams.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Every fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them. . .” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.” ― azar nafisi
“A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“I told them this novel was an American classic, in many ways the quintessential American novel. There were other contenders: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Letter. Some cite its subject matter, the American Dream, to justify this distinction. We in ancient countries have our past--we obsess over the past. They, the Americans, have a dream: they feel nostalgia about the promise of the future.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Art is as useful as bread.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“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.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model.” ― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir
“Memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“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.” ― Azar Nafisi
“I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.” ― Azar Nafisi, Things I've Been Silent About
“None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels--the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with someone you loathe.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Imagine you are walking down a leafy path…The sun is receding, and you are walking alone, caressed by the breezy light of the late afternoon. Then suddenly, you feel a large drop on your right arm. Is it raining? You look up. The sky is still deceptively sunny…seconds later another drop. Then, with the sun still perched in the sky, you are drenched in a shower of rain. This is how memories invade me, abruptly and unexpectedly…” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Reality has become so intolerable, she said, so bleak, that all I can paint now are the colors of my dreams.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Every fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them. . .” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.” ― azar nafisi
“A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“I told them this novel was an American classic, in many ways the quintessential American novel. There were other contenders: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Letter. Some cite its subject matter, the American Dream, to justify this distinction. We in ancient countries have our past--we obsess over the past. They, the Americans, have a dream: they feel nostalgia about the promise of the future.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
“Art is as useful as bread.” ― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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