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.

Memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.

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.

Reality has become so intolerable, she said, so bleak, that all I can paint now are the colors of my dreams.

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

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

None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them.