Read Dangerously Quotes

“Books know no limits or borders, they create longings and unexpected passions, they pose more questions than answers. They represent the unruly world, filled with contradictions and complications, a world that threatens the totalitarian mindset by being beyond its control.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“To be a victim is to abdicate responsibility, to in effect give up most of all on yourself.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“...it is not true that we all want the freedom of knowledge, because it comes at a high price. It comes with pain and loneliness; it demands commitment and responsibility.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“In democratic societies, we do not normally resort to physical violence to muffle those with ideas, but we do use other forms of violence: prejudice, censorship, and slander.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“things will never stay the same.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“the hostility of tyrants to imagination and ideas—is as relevant as ever.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Right now books are in danger. One can go a step further and say that imagination and ideas are in danger, and whenever they are threatened, we know that our reality is similarly in danger.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“am reminded of James Baldwin’s claim that “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“This is a good time to remember what Toni Morrison once said: “. . . art takes us and makes us take a journey beyond price, beyond cost, into bearing witness to the world as it is and as it should be.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Because change is difficult to effect, and differences often seem insurmountable, and literature teaches us how we are compelled to act in certain ways, leading us to the question “How do we change the world?” followed by “How do we change ourselves?”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Fiction arouses our curiosity, and it is this curiosity, this restlessness, this desire to know that makes both writing and reading so dangerous.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“I am reminded of James Baldwin’s claim that “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“state? Such systems may seem to appear out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning. But really, this is because many choose not to see the warning signs, even when they become all too obvious.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“In a 1970 letter to Angela Davis, Baldwin claims, “The American triumph in which the American tragedy has always been implicit—was to make black people despise themselves.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“How could any republic survive, I asked, without the two human faculties that work through imagination: curiosity and empathy?”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Toni Morrison once said: “. . . art takes us and makes us take a journey beyond price, beyond cost, into bearing witness to the world as it is and as it should be.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“It should be clear by now that when I talk about books, I am not talking about literature of resistance but literature as resistance. I am interested in ways through which literature and art resist seats of power—not only that of kings and tyrants, but the tyrant within us as well. It is possible to change policies, but it is far more difficult to change attitudes.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“In the United States, it is mainly we, the people, who are the problem; we who take the existence of challenging literature for granted, or see reading as solely a comfort, seeking out only texts that confirm our presuppositions and prejudices.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. This is what I’ve always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Total power demands total subjugation, without which it cannot rule.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“...my worry is that this polarization, along with more and more dependance on virtual reality, prevents us from connecting with other human beings and with the real world. This lack of connection dehumanizes not just others but also ourselves.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“When we stop reading, we pave the way toward book burning; when we stop caring, we make way for someone else to take over control; when we prefer personality to character, and reality show or virtual reality to reality itself, then we get the kind of politicians that we deserve.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“When we stop thinking, we stop caring.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Poetry was a way to combat the staid and formulaic language of politicians that opposed the flexible and dynamic language of poets and writers.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“It should be clear by now that when I talk about books, I'm not talking about literature of resistance but literature as resistance.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“We need the poet to constantly question things as they are, to jolt us out of our comfort zones, to make us look at the world through the eyes of others and seek to understand experiences that are not our own.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“What choice does the king have but to kick the poets and storytellers out of his republic? And what choice does the poet have but to destabilize the philosopher king’s power by speaking the truth?”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“We in this country have lost the art of engaging with the opposition.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you anyway.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“This era is overwhelmed by violence both in rhetoric and reality, communicating not through inclusion but elimination.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times