Most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed to immutable.

Every fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies.

When I was teaching at the University of Tehran we were struggling against the implementation of the revolution rules.

Visa for Avalon is a testament to the power of fiction. It illuminates the truth at the heart of what is commonly called reality. This account of lives transformed and ruined by the triumph of a totalitarian rule is a timely reminder of how moral and intellectual laziness and apathy can pave the road to the reign of terror brought on by such a system.

Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.

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

You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.