
Variant: When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.
What these works of fiction have allowed me to do is to enter the pain and despair, the hope, to share in the struggles of certain characters that I have identified with (because of the artistry of the writers in making these individuals come alive).
Source: Institute of Education Alumni Life Issue 33 Summer 2010 https://www.irenesabatini.com/files/IS-Novel-Revolutionary-IOE-July-2010.pdf
Variant: When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.
On writing as a kind of spiritual act in “Both Freedom and Constraint: An Interview with Randa Abdel-Fattah” https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/both-freedom-and-constraint-an-interview-with in Words Without Borders (May 2015)
“True freedom is tolerant. It gives people the right to live and think in new ways.”
Fourth Realm Trilogy (2005-2009), The Traveler (2005)
On how a written work may speak to you in “Nilo Cruz by Emily Mann” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/nilo-cruz/ in BOMB Magazine (2004 Jan 1)
Source: Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Context: 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.
Source: The Nature of Personal Reality (1974), p. 9-10, Session 613