Home / Authors / Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi Quotes

Writer

Azar Nafisi is an Iranian-born American writer and scholar, renowned for her experiences during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and her work 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'. She taught English literature at the University of Tehran and was forced to leave Iran after the revolution. Nafisi later moved to the United States and earned a Ph.D. from Georgetown University.

Filter quotes by topic

All Tehran Empathy Reality Iran People Imagination Ifs Literature Past Way Individual Islamic Reading Art Dream Fiction Heart Novel Regimes World

Famous Azar Nafisi Quotes

“Basically, fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. In the same way that Hitler evoked a mythological religion of German purity and the glory of the past, the Islamists use religion to evoke emotions and passions in people who have been oppressed for a long time in order to reach their purpose.”

People Way Long Has Beens Use Past Purpose Order Passion Emotion Modern Long Time Glory Purity Phenomenon Fundamentalism Oppressed Evoke Islamists

Author:Azar Nafisi

“Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.”

People Government Iran

Author:Azar Nafisi

“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.”

People Way Love Persons Feelings Change Missing Strange Like You Tehran Strange Places

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“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?”

People Should Littles Facts Millions Misery Consolation

Author:Azar Nafisi

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

People Streets Who I Am Hometown

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“The revolution taught me not to be consoled by other people's miseries, not to feel thankful because so many others had suffered more. Pain and loss, like love and joy, are unique and personal; they cannot be modified by comparison to others.”

People Feels Pain Joy Loss Taught Revolution Unique Misery Comparison Like Love Pain And Loss

Author:Azar Nafisi

“She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.”

People Honest Honesty Vulnerable

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.”

People Way Mind Believe Kind Happened Silent One Way

Book:Things I've Been Silent About: Memories

Source: Things I've Been Silent About: Memories

“I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.”

People Soul America Attention Pay Attention Superficiality Polarization Reductionism

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I would like to say how much I resent people who say of the Islamic Republic that this is our culture - as if women like to be stoned to death, or as if they like to be married at the age of nine.”

People Ifs Age Culture Married Nine Islamic Republic Being Married Resent

Author:Azar Nafisi

“The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.”

People Dream Turns Sides Vision Cost Negative Pursue American Dream

Author:Azar Nafisi

“The crisis besetting America is not just an economic or political crisis; something deeper is wreaking havoc across the land, a mercenary and utilitarian attitude that demonstrates little empathy for people’s actual well-being, that dismisses imagination and thought, branding passion for knowledge as irrelevant.”

Source: The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books

About the Author

Born: December 1, 1955
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 121

Related Topics

Tehran Empathy Reality Iran People Imagination Ifs Literature Past Way Individual Islamic Reading Art Dream Fiction Heart Novel Regimes World

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in BooksRelated source material

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three BooksRelated source material

Things I've Been Silent AboutRelated source material

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled TimesRelated source material

Reading Lolita in TehranRelated source material

Things I've Been Silent About: MemoriesRelated source material

Similar Authors

Afshin MolaviBrowse related quotes
Mustafa AkyolBrowse related quotes
Chris TerrioBrowse related quotes
Ruhollah KhomeiniBrowse related quotes
Hooman MajdBrowse related quotes
Mahmoud AhmadinejadBrowse related quotes
Akbar GanjiBrowse related quotes
Moshe KatsavBrowse related quotes
Ayad AllawiBrowse related quotes
Shirin EbadiBrowse related quotes