I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and stayed for 18 years in the Islamic republic.

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?

I'm a perfectly equipped failure.

She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.

America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?

We all had to pay, but not for the crimes we were accused of. There were other scores to settle.

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