For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's struggle in Iran as part of a western ploy.

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.

Art is as useful as bread.

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

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.

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

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.