239 Quotes by Azar Nafisi

When I walked down the streets, I asked myself, are these my people?, is this my hometown, am I who I am?

The reason I am so popular is that I give others back what they need to find in themselves. You need me not because I tell you what I want you to do but because I articulate and justify what you want to do.

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?

I eat my heart out alone.

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

I believe in empathy. I believe in the kind of empathy that is created through imagination and through intimate, personal relationships. I am a writer and a teacher, so much of my time is spent interpreting stories and connecting to other individuals. It is the urge to know more about ourselves and others that creates empathy. Through imagination and our desire for rapport, we transcend our limitations, freshen our eyes, and are able to look at ourselves and the world through a new and alternative lens.

I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.

After the rigged Iranian presidential elections in 2009, the Islamic regime attacked the 'humanities' as the main source of protests, the most effective tool used by the West, especially America, to corrupt and incite Iranian youth, and finally closed down all the Humanities departments in Iran's universities.

It is amazing how, when all possibilities seem to be taken away from you, the minutest opening can become a great freedom.