Lots of times you can feel as an exile in a country that you were born in.
Azar NafisiRead
Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction should be appreciated for its imaginative qualities rather than forced to mimic reality.
In this quote, Azar Nafisi emphasizes the unique value of fiction as a medium that transcends mere reality. Instead of trying to replicate the real world, fiction serves to illuminate deeper truths and insights about the human experience, allowing readers to explore emotions, ideas, and revelations that might not be accessible through everyday life.
Themes
FictionTruthImaginationRealityLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would resonate well at a book club discussing the importance of imaginative storytelling.
More from Azar Nafisi
All quotes →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.
Azar NafisiRead
The worst crime committed by totalitarian mind-sets is that they force their citizens, including their victims, to become complicit in their crimes. Dancing with your jailer, participating in your own execution, that is an act of utmost brutality.
Azar NafisiRead
I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared - like Huck Finn - to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose?
Azar NafisiRead
I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.
Azar NafisiRead
It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.
Azar NafisiRead
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All the same it is being said everywhere that I played too softly, or rather, too delicately for people used to the piano-pounding of the artists here.
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