those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account.

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.

I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.

The dearer a book was to my heart, the more battered and bruised it became.

Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.

There is little consolation in the fact that millions of people are unhappier than we are. Why should other people's misery make us happier or more content?

In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies in the way the author takes control of reality by retelling it in his own way, thus creating a new world. Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life. The perfection and beauty of form rebels against the ugliness and shabbiness of the subject matter.