““Modern fiction brings out the evil in domestic lives, ordinary relations, people like you and me -- Reader! Bruder! as Humbert said. Evil in Austen, as in most great fiction, lies in the inability to "see" others, hence to empathize with them. What is frightening is that this blindness can exist in the best of us (Eliza Bennet) as well as the worst (Humbert). We are all capable of becoming the blind censor, or imposing our visions and desires on others.””
![“[Jane] Austen was not a novelist for nothing: she knew that our stories are what make us human, and that listening to someone else's stories -- entering into their feelings, validating their experiences -- is the highest way of acknowledging their humanity, the sweetest form of usefulness.” quote by William Deresiewicz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2bb/william-deresiewicz-15471_jane-austen_jane-austen-was-not-a-novelist-for-nothi_62623.jpg)
![“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)
