Always Quote by Said Sayrafiezadeh

The benefit of writing a collection - as opposed to a novel - is that I'm able to have some version of the war…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

I was trying to hold up a mirror to this country, to reflect the past years or so, and the varying degrees in which…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

We were poor, my mother and I, living in a world of doom and gloom, pessimism and bitterness, where storms raged and wolves scratched…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

The difference between our family and other poor families was that my mother actively chose to be poor. She was highly literate, and she…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

My sister married an American and took his name, and my brother has shortened Sayrafiezadeh to Sayraf. So now he's Jacob Sayraf, or sometimes…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

I sometimes have to write for a while before I figure it out, pretend that I know what I'm doing, sort of like ad-libbing…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

I suppose my Iranian identity is one of the driving forces for being a writer: I want to set the record straight about who…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

[Ending] is partly drawn from a desire to shock the audience, to brutally de-romanticize what many Americans think is happening overseas. And partly drawn…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

My childhood was defined by my father's absence. His presence looms so large. Up until the age of 18, he was a superstar for me.

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

I don't work with an outline, except a vague one in my head, a general idea of character, place, arc... I'm like a composer…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

My characters are not underachievers; they aspire to great things, but they are limited by the world around them.

— Said Sayrafiezadeh

I need to feel as if everything is clean and in its proper place before I can even attempt to write one word. At…

— Said Sayrafiezadeh