Quotes from book
Reading Lolita in Tehran

Name: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Author: Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books is a book by Iranian author and professor Azar Nafisi. Published in 2003, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for over one hundred weeks and has been translated into 32 languages

“The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Context: I explained that 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 too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes.

“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.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

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.

“Every great work of art … is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Context: Every great work of art... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.