In my memoir, I wanted to introduce American women to Iranian women and our lives. I'm not from the highest echelons of society, nor the lowest. I'm a woman who is a lawyer, who is a professor at a university, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. At the same time, I cook. And even when I'm about to go to prison, one of the first things I do is to make enough food and put it in the fridge for my family.

Fear is a human instinct, just like hunger. Whether you like it or not, you become hungry. Similarly with fear. But I have learned to train myself to live with the fear.

Akbar Ganji was in prison for six years, and that was it...for six years, and it was finished. Of course the Iranian government could make up some stories and accuse him of some other things, but the international support didn't let the government do that.

There is no "true Islam," just different interpretations.

The life of a woman is worth half of that of a man [in Iran]. If a terrorist attacks me and my brother on the street and we are both injured the same, the compensation he receives is twice as much as the compensation that I would receive.

The Iranian government intends to use the nuclear program for peaceful purposes, but must convince international public opinion of that.

No American soldier should be allowed to set foot on Iranian soil, regardless of the criticism we have of the Iranian government.