Unfortunately For Governments Like That Of Iran,

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.

Those In The West Who Dismiss The Repressiveness Of Laws Against Women In Countries Like Iran, No Matter How Benign Their Intentions, Present A Condescending View Not Just Of The Religion But Also Of Women Living In Muslim Majority Countries, As If The Desire For Choice And Happiness Is The Monopoly Of Women In The West.

The Novels Were An Escape From Reality In The Sense That We Could Marvel At Their Beauty And Perfection. Curiously, The Novels We Escaped Into Led Us Finally To Question And Prod Our Own Realities, About Which We Felt So Helplessly Speechless.

You Need Imagination In Order To Imagine A Future That Doesn't Exist.

The Reason I Am So Popular Is That I Give Others Back What They Need To Find In Themselves. You Need Me Not Because I Tell You What I Want You To Do But Because I Articulate And Justify What You Want To Do.