My passion has always been books and literature, and teaching.

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

It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.

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.

Thus the regime has deprived Iranian women not just of their present rights, but also of their history and their past.

The reason I am so popular is that I give others back what they need to find in themselves. You need me not because I tell you what I want you to do but because I articulate and justify what you want to do.

The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.