“incapacity for true dialogue implies an incapacity for tolerance, self-reflection and empathy.” — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels-the biggest sin is to be blind to others problems… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
A novel is not an allegory… It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
The crisis besetting America is not just an economic or political crisis; something deeper is wreaking havoc across the land, a mercenary… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“A novel is not an allegory, I said as the period was about to come to an end. It is the sensual… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
Only curiosity about the fate of others, the ability to put ourselves in their shoes, and the will to enter their world… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“It wasn't courage that motivated this casual, impersonal manner of treating so much pain; it was a special brand of cowardice...forcing others… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
I believe in empathy. I believe in the kind of empathy that is created through imagination and through intimate, personal relationships. I… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“A novel is not an allegory...it is a sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“Other people's sorrows and joys have a way of reminding us of our own; we partly empathize with them because we ask… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“It wasn't courage that motivated this casual, impersonal manner of treating so much pain; it was a special brand of cowardice, a… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“It is not accidental that the most unsympathetic characters in Austen's novels are those who are incapable of genuine dialogue with others.… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“A novel is not an allegory...it is a sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“I have a recurring fantasy that one more article has been added to the Bill of Rights: the right to free access to imagination.… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“Hope for some means its loss for others; when the hopeless regain some hope, those in power--the ones who had taken it away--become afraid,… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
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… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
If I turned towards books, it was because they were the only sanctuary I knew, one I needed in order to survive, to protect… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“Such an act [testifying for an accused prison guard of the Shah's regime] can only be accomplished by someone who is engrossed in literature,… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
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… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“That first day I asked my students what they thought fiction should accomplish, why one should bother to read fiction at all. It was… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“you cannot just be stubborn against something, you need to be stubborn for something as well” — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
Visa for Avalon is a testament to the power of fiction. It illuminates the truth at the heart of what is commonly called reality.… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“You ask me what it means to be irrelevant? The feeling is akin to visiting your old house as a wandering ghost with unfinished… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
![“Such an act [testifying for an accused prison guard of the Shah's regime] can only be accomplished by someone who is engrossed in literature, has learned that every individual has different dimensions to his personality… Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into…” quote by Azar Nafisi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e57/azar-nafisi-2001_books_such-an-act-testifying-for-an-accused-pr_74846.jpg)
