I have said many times that I wish there was no oil in the Middle East, and more water. People would have been much happier than they are right now.

Sadly the job security of lawyers has been ruined, so they are less willing to defend political defendants.

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.

When we criticize in Iran the actions of the government, the fundamentalists say that we and the Bush Administration are in the same camp. The funny thing is that human rights activists and Mr. Bush can never be situated in the same group.

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.

Terrorism is based on two major pillars: One is injustice, and the other is a certainty of attitude, the notion that their version of the story is the correct one.