Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life;… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
The existence of the writer is to write, and to write is to tell the truth. — 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
“Those who are close to us, when they die, divide our world. There is the world of the living, which we finally,… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“The more I discovered the lyrical quality of our lives, the more my own life became a web of fiction.” — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“Life in the Islamic Republic was as capricious as the month of April, when short periods of sunshine will suddenly give way… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“In another Nabokov novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight , Sebastian's brother discovers two seemingly incongruous pictures in his dead brother's… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“I was reminded of a painter friend who had started her career by depicting scenes from life, mainly deserted rooms, abandoned houses… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“There was something, both in fiction and in his life (Nabokov), that we instinctively related to and grasped, the possibility of a… — 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
“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
Once evil is individualized, becoming part of everyday life, the way of resisting it also becomes individual. How does the soul survive?… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was not so… — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life. — Azar Nafisi Copy Share Image
“Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities… — 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
