With fear come the lies and the justifications that, no matter how convincing, lower our self-esteem.

It is amazing how, when all possibilities seem to be taken away from you, the minutest opening can become a great freedom.

Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with someone you loathe.

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.

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.

Art is no longer snobbish or cowardly. It teaches peasants to use tractors, gives lyrics to young soldiers, designs textiles for factory women's dresses, writes burlesque for factory theatres, does a hundred other useful tasks. Art is as usueful as bread.

When I first left Iran at the age of 13, Iran had become such a shining star - it was the point to which all my desires and dreams returned.