When I First Left Iran At The

Most Great Works Of The Imagination Were Meant To Make You Feel Like A Stranger In Your Own Home. The Best Fiction Always Forced Us To Question What We Took For Granted. It Questioned Traditions And Expectations When They Seemed To Immutable.

Every Culture Has Something To Be Ashamed Of, But Every Culture Also Has The Right To Change, To Challenge Negative Traditions, And Create To New Ones.

Every Great Work Of Art ... Is A Celebration, An Act Of Insubordination Against The Betrayals, Horrors And Infidelities Of Life.

Imagine You Are Walking Down A Leafy Path...the Sun Is Receding, And You Are Walking Alone, Caressed By The Breezy Light Of The Late Afternoon. Then Suddenly, You Feel A Large Drop On Your Right Arm. Is It Raining? You Look Up. The Sky Is Still Deceptively Sunny...seconds Later Another Drop. Then, With The Sun Still Perched In The Sky, You Are Drenched In A Shower Of Rain. This Is How Memories Invade Me, Abruptly And Unexpectedly.

Reality Has Become So Intolerable, She Said, So Bleak, That All I Can Paint Now Are The Colors Of My Dreams.