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?

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

A novel is not moral in the usual sense of the word. It can be called moral when it shakes us out of our stupor and makes us confront the absolutes we believe in.

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.

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

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

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.