Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi is an Iranian writer and professor of English literature. She has resided in the United States since 1997 and became an American citizen in 2008...
NationalityIranian
ProfessionWriter
Azar Nafisi quotes about
self-esteem lying matter
With fear come the lies and the justifications that, no matter how convincing, lower our self-esteem.
art betrayal lying
In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies in the way the author takes control of reality by retelling it in his own way, thus creating a new world. Every great work of art, I would declare pompously, is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life. The perfection and beauty of form rebels against the ugliness and shabbiness of the subject matter.
thinking issues want
A bad author can take the most moral issue and make you want to just never, ever think about that moral issue.
thinking islam needs
I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.
causes tehran dies
It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.
stronger dies
The more we die, the stronger we will become
I'm a perfectly equipped failure.
reading reality order
We do not read in order to turn great works of fiction into simplistic replicas of our own realities, we read for the pure, sensual, and unadulterated pleasure of reading. And if we do so, our reward is the discovery of the many hidden layers within these works that do not merely reflect reality but reveal a spectrum of truths, thus intrinsically going against the grain of totalitarian mindsets.
reality fiction epiphany
What we search for in fiction is not so much reality, but the epiphany of truth.
iran causes symptoms
Khatami is a symptom and not the cause of change in Iran.
heart reality intellectual
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.
imagination political feelings
We speak of facts, yet facts exist only partially to us if they are not repeated and re-created through emotions, thoughts and feelings. To me it seemed as if we had not really existed, or only half existed, because we could not imaginatively realize ourselves and communicate to the world, because we had used works of imagination to serve as handmaidens to some political ploy.
inspirational motivational book
The dearer a book was to my heart, the more battered and bruised it became.
reality limits fairy-tale
Every fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies.