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
Whenever religion, no matter where it comes from, when it claims to spread the word of God through [the] State it becomes dangerous.
religion word dangerous matter state god
First of all, there are aspects of culture which are really reprehensible, and we should [all] fight against it. We shouldn't accept them. Second of all, women in Iran and in Saudi Arabia don't like to be stoned to death.
women culture death fight iran accept
Iranian fiction has entered a new era.. The Islamic Revolution has shaken all values and norms within society. Now, the images of women have to be rethought and redefined. Under extreme pressure, women must look at themselves not only as members of their society or their country but as individuals whose very private lives and liberties are being redefined.
women revolution society values fiction pressure lives norms country individuals images extreme
Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.
people government iran
Many times I tell my American students my Iranian students understood how valuable [freedom] is because they had been deprived of it. Sometimes in the West we need to be reminded of the fact that blood has been paid for what we have.
blood times fact students american west
You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.
imagination order future imagine exist
Lots of times you can feel as an exile in a country that you were born in.
thetimes time feel times born exile country
I would like to think of my own status as what you called 'citizen of the world' or a 'citizen of a portable world,' if not of the world.
world status
Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.
life work art act great celebration
reading circumstances life work truth real reality fiction epiphany search 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.
destiny experience world characters heart empathy breath start allegory breathing read 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.
reading life society individuality morality sensitivity learning insight novels issues self-righteousness
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.
silence
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.
writing
None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them.
attitude evil
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