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Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi Quotes

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Famous Azar Nafisi Quotes

“You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. 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.”

SaidSelfEvilIndividualNovelIssuesMoralityComplicatedSensesFixedComplexityGood And EvilRighteousnessFormulasSensitivityAdulteryFidelitySelf RighteousSelf RighteousnessTehranGreat Novels
Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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“A novel is not an allegory.... It is the sensual experience of another world. 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. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.”

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Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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“It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them.”

IfsDifferentLiteratureIndividualSidesBecomingAspectMurderShoesOneselfDimensionsSpheresContradictoryRuthlessRefrainTehranDifferent Dimensions
Author:Azar Nafisi
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“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.”

WorldWayArtMatterRealityFormLyingFictionSubjectsHorrorEssentialsCreatingPerfectionBetrayalWorks Of ArtRebelNew WorldCelebrationInfidelityAffirmationUglinessGreat WorkDefianceSubject MatterGrimRetellingTake ControlTransienceTehranInsubordination
Author:Azar Nafisi
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“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. 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.”

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Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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