Reading Lolita in Tehran Quotes

“In the Damascus airport she had been humiliated by what she was assumed to be, and when she returned home, she felt angry because of what she could have been.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“This was Nassrin, or to be honest, this was the two of us together: sharing the most intimate moments with a shrug, pretending they were not intimate. It wasn't courage that motivated this casual, impersonal manner of treating so much pain; it was a special brand of cowardice, a destructive defense mechanism, forcing others to listen to the most horrendous experiences and yet denying them the moment of empathy: don't feel sorry for me; nothing is too big for me to handle. This is nothing, nothing really.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“After the revolution, almost all the activities one associated with being out in public—seeing movies, listening to music, sharing drinks or a meal with friends—shifted to private homes. It was refreshing to go out once in a while, even to such a desultory event.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Muslim man, regardless of his fortune, must be in want of a nine-year-old virgin wife.' So declared Yassi in that special tone of hers, deadpan and mildly ironic, which on rare occasions, and this was one of them, bordered on the burlesque.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“There were many such instances, when expressions of sympathy could not be exchanged. What do you say to someone who is telling you about the rape and murder of virgins—I'm sorry, I feel your pain?”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Looking back on that time it seems to me that such rapture over Tarkovsky by an audience most of whom would not have known how to spell his name, and who would under normal circumstances have ignored or even disliked his work, arose from our intense sensory deprivation. We were thirsty for some form of beauty, even in an incomprehensible, overintellectual, abstract film with no subtitles and censored out of recognition. There was a sense of wonder at being in a public place for the first time in years without fear or anger, being in a place with a crowd of strangers that was not a demonstration, a protest rally, a breadline or a public execution.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“That was the first time I experienced the desperate orgiastic pleasure of this form of public mourning: it was the one place where people mingled and touched bodies and shared emotions without restraint or guilt. There was a wild, sexually flavored frenzy in the air. Later, when I saw a slogan by Khomeini saying that the Islamic Republic survives through its mourning ceremonies, I could testify to its truth.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“We were all victims of the arbitrary nature of a totalitarian regime that constantly intruded into the most private corners of our lives and imposed its relentless fictions on us. Was this rule the rule of Islam? What memories were we creating for our children? This constant assault, this persistent lack of kindness, was what frightened me most.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Again she repeated that she would never get married, never ever. She said that for her a man always existed in books, that she would spend the rest of her life with Mr. Darcy—even in the books, there were few men for her. What was wrong with that?”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Putting the pastries onto a large tray, I asked Manna if she envisioned the words to her poems in colors. Nabokov writes in his autobiography that he and his mother saw the letters of the alphabet in color, I explained. He says of himself that he is a painterly writer.

The Islamic Republic coarsened my taste in colors, Manna said, fingering the discarded leaves of her roses. I want to wear outrageous colors, like shocking pink or tomato red. I feel too greedy for colors to see them in carefully chosen words of poetry.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Un romanzo non è un'allegoria, è l'esperienza sensoriale di un altro mondo. Se non entrate in quel mondo, se non trattenete il respiro insieme ai personaggi, se non vi lasciate coinvolgere nel loro destino, non arriverete mai ad identificarvi con loro, non arriverete mai al cuore del libro. È cosi che si legge un romanzo: come se fosse qualcosa da inalare, da tenere nei polmoni. Dunque, cominciate a respirare.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“And so began the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran versus The Great Gatsby”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“«La mia fantasia ricorrente è che alla Carta dei Diritti dell'Uomo venga aggiunta la voce: diritto all'immaginazione. Ormai mi sono convinta che la vera democrazia non può esistere senza la libertà di immaginazione e il diritto di usufruire liberamente delle opere di fantasia. Per vivere una vita vera, completa, bisogna avere la possibilità di dar forma ed espressione ai propri mondi privati, ai propri sogni, pensieri e desideri; bisogna che il tuo mondo privato possa sempre comunicare col mondo di tutti. Altrimenti, come facciamo a sapere che siamo esistiti? «I fatti concreti di cui parliamo non esistono, se non vengono ricreati e ripetuti attraverso le emozioni, i pensieri e le sensazioni».”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“. . . none of us are as sophisticated in these matters as you think. You know I always feel, with every new person, as if I am starting anew. These things are instinctive. What you need to learn is to lay aside your inhibitions, to go back to your childhood when you played marbles or whatever with boys and never thought anything of it.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“...but I spoke passionately at the rallies; inspired by phrases I had read in novels and poems, I would weave words together into sounds of revolution.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books