9 quotes
Khatami is a symptom and not the cause of change in Iran.
The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
This, I believe, is how the villain in modern fiction is born: a creature without compassion, without empathy.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels — the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Do not, under any circumstances belittle a works of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a voice; in this way a novel is called democratic — not that it advocates democracy but that by nature it is so.
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)