I was reminded of a painter friend who had started her career by depicting scenes from life, mainly deserted rooms, abandoned houses and discarded photographs of women. Gradually, her work became more abstract, and in her last exhibition, her paintings were splashes of rebellious color, like the two in my living room, dark patches with little droplets of blue. I asked about her progress from modern realism to abstraction. Reality has become so intolerable, she said, so bleak, that all I can paint now are the colors of my dreams.
Azar Nafisi
Related I think my first big purchase was actually for my mom. She had one of those '90s TVs in her livi... DAVE FRANCO My reflections amount to a love story that is mostly made up, from memories that are mostly false, b... OLIVIA SUDJIC She sat up, cheeks flushed and golden hair tousled. She was so beautiful that it made my soul ache. ... RICHELLE MEAD Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead, she couldn't get interested in... TONI MORRISON My mom has always been a great support, and she has put so much of her own life into my career. I do... LINDSAY LOHAN ; so too, her glazed ceramics and her macramé are interchangeable with those executed by her women ... JOYCE CAROL OATES She was like a trainer for extension agents. I learned so much from her and like the other agents wh... BRIAN YANTA She didn’t understand why it was happening,” he said. “I had to tell her she would die. Her so... JOHN GREEN At night I told myself a story, wordless, inside my head, one I liked far better than those in my bo... ALICE HOFFMAN Lillian tells everyone about her flaws," Daisy said, her brown eyes twinkling. "She's proud of them.... LISA KLEYPAS I had talked to her Sunday evening as she was leaving, before the hurricane came in. She took some i... DOROTHY DEMBOSKI I never thought I’d ever leave Zerc. But after knowing Cricket, it occurred to me that I had no re... ASH GRAY She died that night. Her last breath took her soul, I saw it in my dream. I saw her soul leave her b... GARTH STEIN My mother started out by being a very good girl. She did everything that was expected of her, and it... RUTH REICHL When someone dies they can be any age you remember can't they ' she asked. As I tried to think of a ... ROSAMUND LUPTON She had this dark cancer water dripping out of her chest. Eyes closed. Intubated. But her hand was s... JOHN GREEN My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her... ELIZABETH GILBERT I know about her, although she has never crossed my path," he said softly. "I know about her struggl... SHERWOOD ANDERSON She had been defeated by herself alone, and the sadness of it left a dark shadow in her heart. It fu... YO YO There might have been prettier women in the room but, when she turned those babies on, fluttered her... THOMM QUACKENBUSH One little girl asked her mom if she could take $20 out of her piggy bank, ... I asked her if she di... TROY MILLER She was so excited to paint each of the kids' bedrooms and her living room. She didn't think anythin... DAWN HEIDTMAN I just took her heart away from her right away. I was doing the feints, trying to get her out of her... JAIME CLAMPITT I gave her the world, the moon, the sun, the stars, the planets... I gave her my breath, my voice, m... HUBERT MARTIN When my first daughter was born, my husband held her in his hands and said, 'My God, she's s... AYELET WALDMAN When it came to her, I became an indomitable warrior. My muscles became her shield and my lungs aide... HUBERT MARTIN Acceptance made her realize that she had it in her to boldly and gracefully handle her own life. She... LATIKA TEOTIA So I watch her work and put all her energy, all her force, all herself, all is inside her work. Does... JINAT REHANA BEGUM Her skin is cold, and clammy; her eyes are the color of sky, on the grey, wet days that leach the wo... NEIL GAIMAN My mother looked back at me while my father drove. Her long auburn hair was shimmering in the flicke... ZARA STEEN I don't know if I have a favorite color. KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl. KATE MIDDLETON When I see her,” I said, “it’s like - I don’t know what it’s like. It’s like I never saw... SARAH WATERS I came down to the living room one day and my wife was standing in the living room. It wasn't an... HUGH LEONARD When Mom had her first nervous breakdown, she said she had a vision of Christ coming to her in the l... SPALDING GRAY He, who had done more than any human being to draw her out of the caves of her secret, folded life, ... ANAïS NIN I like her; I could watch her the rest of my life. She has breasts that smile. PHILIP K. DICK Deep down, my mom had long suspected I was gay... Much of her anger and hurt came from her sense of ... CHASTITY BONO Deep down, my mom had long suspected I was gay... Much of her anger and hurt came from her sense of ... CHAZ BONO If I had it my way, Harper and I wouldn't be standing in this room right now, we wouldn't be pressed... MOLLY MCADAMS My daughter had carried within her a story that kept hurting her: Her dad abandoned her. She started... REGINA BRETT Like a splendid mosaic of myriad colors, she in all her hues of sensitivity would paint her feelings... AVIJEET DAS She became certain that there was something in the dark behind her: something very old and very slow... NEIL GAIMAN No one had ever looked at me before Suzanne, not really, so she became my definition. Her gaze softe... EMMA CLINE My own mother died when I was 10 years old. My folks have told me that what little humor I have come... WILL ROGERS I wanted to throw up. Her intestine was pulled away from the wall of her stomach. That had to be rep... CHERYL LUKER She is a girl so I wouldnt slap her. I would lock her in a room full of spiders and let her think ... BRANDON BOYD I thought I was in love with Leola, by which I meant that if I could have found her in a quiet corne... ROBERTSON DAVIES I smiled and looked at her- there she was with such a genuine grin and twinkle in her eyes. I kissed... JORI NUNES This did not in any way alter her intention of accomplishing her mission; on the contrary; it seemed... JANE BOWLES Then, I exit her apartment. With practiced efficiency, I engage all of the locks in seconds. I want ... K. WEBSTER She is a girl so I wouldn’t slap her. I would lock her in a room full of spiders and let her think... BRANDON BOYD But Lucy had been alone too much of her life, and in her loneliness she had constructed a vision of ... ANN PATCHETT And she arose from her deathbed in a gossamer gown, with eyes the color of starlight and hair as bla... YASMINE GALENORN I guess it was mainly my love of dogs. I had a dog at the time I started and I wanted to spend more ... JACKIE JORDAN It was true. Sugar did treat her bees like next of kin but then again, they were. Along with he... SARAH-KATE LYNCH Josey?” She heard her mother’s voice in the hall, then the thud of her cane as she came closer. ... SARAH ADDISON ALLEN It was early in my career, and I had been seeing Mary, a shy, lonely, and physically collapsed you... BESSEL A. VAN DER KOLK I went to my grandmother, your great-great-grandmother, and asked her to write a letter. She was my ... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Sissy had two great failings. She was a great lover and a great mother. She had so much of tendernes... BETTY SMITH Every year I sent her stuff for our camps and asked her to come out. Her mom just called out of the ... AMY JOHNSON I think it was my way of making her look beautiful every day and from the moment her hair was long e... DEENA EBRIGHT I grabbed her, right there outside the lunch room in the swarming mob. I didn't care if others were ... JERRY SPINELLI I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how s... WILLIAM J. CLINTON One fine day as my mother was putting the bread in the oven, I went up to her and taking her by her ... MARC CHAGALL Sometimes, as Eve was born from one of Adam’s ribs, a woman was born during my sleep from a crampe... MARCEL PROUST You don't know what it's like to grow up with a mother who never said a positive thing in her life, ... JUNOT DíAZ And because she was young, and so damn clever and amusing and wonderful, wherever she made her home,... SARAH J. MAAS One of our clients was living alone after the loss of her spouse and was unable to drive because of ... BARBARA BRADLEY She was a feminist without knowing anything about the women's movement, ... I love that she refused ... TOVAH FELDSHUH I suppose it was the end of the world for her when her husband and her baby were killed. I suppose s... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM ...It often seemed to her that she thought too much about herself, you could have made her blush any... HENRY JAMES She sleeps. And now she wakes each day a little less. And, each day, takes less and less nourishment... ANGELA CARTER My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mo... CAMPBELL BROWN -Paint- My girlfriend is so besotted that she can't take her eyes off me. After we've tur... DAN RHODES The door flew open, revealing a wrinkled, forward-thrusting face wreathed with a nimbus of wispy whi... LYNDSAY FAYE I'm very proud of my love for Whitney Houston. She really changed my life. She made my life a be... NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN I thought she was older. She was big for her age. So, I asked her to carry my books. CHARLES MELLOR I'm watching her talk. Watching her jaw move and collecting her words one by one as they spill from ... ISAAC MARION She's bounced back pretty well and very immediately from all her surgeries. But that's her personali... JULIE WILLIAMS What was she like?" I tell the truth. "She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding... NICHOLAS SPARKS I wanted to spend more time with her; she was constantly in my thoughts, and right now the only thin... JULIE KAGAWA I wish she had been alive to see it. When I was a little girl, I used to lock myself in my room and ... ELIDA REYNA Yes. I physically attempted to get her out of my room and I was wrong in doing that. At the time I w... DANIEL PETROCELLI She was wearing a pair of my pajamas with the sleeves rolled up. When she laughed I wanted her again... ALBERT CAMUS She had a very difficult life. Her mother gave her away when she was little, and the man who took he... BERNARDO BATIZ She knew her distance and did angle for me, Madding my eagerness with her restraint, As all impedime... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Now would you do me a favor?' From somewhere inside me came this devastating assault to make me cry.... ERICH SEGAL It slowly began to dawn on me that I had been staring at her for an impossible amount of time. Lost ... PATRICK ROTHFUSS I want Violet to be proud of every little thing that is her - her hair, her body. We're all diff... CHRISTINA MILIAN My mom's reaction was the funniest. I told her I was playing in the All-Star game and she said 'why?... JIMMY ROY Mrs. Jones had received a lot of injuries to her body, all over her body. She had over 60 wounds. Th... JOE WARD I was expecting a little more from ol' Sharon y'know? I wasn't about to get down and dirty with her,... LEONARDO DICAPRIO Those were her best days, although there was always something feckless about her, something so slack... ANGELA CARTER She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my ow... NICHOLAS SPARKS For a mother the project of raising a boy is the most fulfilling project she can hope for. She can w... ANDREA DWORKIN I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. Write, for instance: "The night is full of ... PABLO NERUDA I think I fell in love with her, a little bit. Isn't that dumb? But it was like I knew her. Like she... NEIL GAIMAN After my mom died, there was so much written about her fashion and her style and all that, and I fel... CAROLINE KENNEDY Best Friends. And I thought of what she had done all the millions of times I cried to he... SARAH DESSEN
More Azar Nafisi
Once we know of atrocities we cannot remain silent, and knowledge inevitably leads to an urge to pro... AZAR NAFISI The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn ... AZAR NAFISI You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist. AZAR NAFISI I would like to think of my own status as what you called 'citizen of the world' or a 'citizen of a ... AZAR NAFISI Lots of times you can feel as an exile in a country that you were born in. AZAR NAFISI You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist. AZAR NAFISI Many times I tell my American students my Iranian students understood how valuable [freedom] is beca... AZAR NAFISI Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more inte... AZAR NAFISI First of all, there are aspects of culture which are really reprehensible, and we should [all] fight... AZAR NAFISI Whenever religion, no matter where it comes from, when it claims to spread the word of God through [... AZAR NAFISI Iranian fiction has entered a new era...The Islamic Revolution has shaken all values and norms withi... AZAR NAFISI Every culture has something to be ashamed of, but every culture also has the right to change, to cha... AZAR NAFISI The best work of literature to represent the American Dream is 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scot... AZAR NAFISI Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no ma... AZAR NAFISI Thus the regime has deprived Iranian women not just of their present rights, but also of their histo... AZAR NAFISI Basically, fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. In the same way that Hitler evoked a mythological ... AZAR NAFISI I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and sta... AZAR NAFISI I would like to say how much I resent people who say of the Islamic Republic that this is our cultur... AZAR NAFISI In the past 30 years, officials of the Iranian regime and its apologists have labeled criticism, esp... AZAR NAFISI Look at Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution and the slogans that they used: anti-imperialism; anti-c... AZAR NAFISI You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how compl... AZAR NAFISI . . . none of us are as sophisticated in these matters as you think. You know I always feel, with ev... AZAR NAFISI Religion was used as an ideology, as a system of control. When they forced the veil upon women, they... AZAR NAFISI We had always segregated sex from feeling and from intellectual love, so you were either pure and vi... AZAR NAFISI You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss ... AZAR NAFISI A bad author can take the most moral issue and make you want to just never, ever think about that mo... AZAR NAFISI [A] great novel will allow you to transcend the social, racial and political limitations imposed by ... AZAR NAFISI I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we ... AZAR NAFISI That was the first time I experienced the desperate orgiastic pleasure of this form of public mourni... AZAR NAFISI The stories from Iran's present and past are reminders that freedom, democracy and human rights,... AZAR NAFISI It is not accidental that the most unsympathetic characters in Austen's novels are those who are inc... AZAR NAFISI For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's strug... AZAR NAFISI I turned on the flashlight; it cut a small circle of light from the darkness around me. AZAR NAFISI She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and ... AZAR NAFISI When I was teaching at the University of Tehran we were struggling against the implementation of the... AZAR NAFISI I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to i... AZAR NAFISI This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime, who degrades Islam? Who imposes stonin... AZAR NAFISI The biggest crime in Nabokov's 'Lolita' is imposing your own dream upon someone else'... AZAR NAFISI America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry? AZAR NAFISI I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself. AZAR NAFISI Well, that was in 1995 when I resigned from my last academic job. AZAR NAFISI When I first left Iran at the age of 13, Iran had become such a shining star - it was the point to w... AZAR NAFISI People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was n... AZAR NAFISI A message was sent by the regime to the faithful: to survive they would have to be loyal to only one... AZAR NAFISI Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with someone you loathe. AZAR NAFISI When I left class that day, I did not tell them what I myself was just beginning to discover: how si... AZAR NAFISI Those who are close to us, when they die, divide our world. There is the world of the living, which ... AZAR NAFISI You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place...like you'll not only miss the people ... AZAR NAFISI None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evils; it's all a matter of what attitude you... AZAR NAFISI It's the state and local distribution plans that will define victory. ALEX AZAR We are overdue for the next pandemic. None of us, nobody, would have immunity. ALEX AZAR Nothing from my personal experiences with him would ever have led me to question his integrity, his ... ALEX AZAR It is so critical that on every level, every individual becomes prepared. ALEX AZAR The looming threat of a global influenza pandemic demands global, regional and national attention, a... ALEX AZAR We've got to be prepared on the local level. ALEX AZAR Any community that fails to prepare -- with the expectation that the federal government can or will ... ALEX AZAR It will not be a cause for panic. It will not be a cause for people to stop hunting. It will not be ... ALEX AZAR I liked the look in Carolyn's eyes when she started the second half. She walked out on the court, hi... JAN AZAR But she's got to lead us. JAN AZAR I don't think we'll do anything differently. We'll try to put a lot of pressure on them. JAN AZAR They played like seniors at the end, and we've got to make sure they continue to do that throughout ... JAN AZAR We haven't seen the new study yet, and we're not in the habit of prejudging these sorts of things. (... LARA AZAR He'll look forward to what they have to tell them. LARA AZAR In general, it (the study) appeared to have succeeded in gathering and combining a lot of different ... LARA AZAR Oh, boy, that never happened. LARA AZAR We're keeping a very close eye on it, but at this point, nothing seems to point to the need for a st... LARA AZAR We had another paper that ran the whole thing almost (verbatim) ... and we finally got that paper to... LARA AZAR Randall's a good guy, and the governor looks forward to working with him in his role as speaker. LARA AZAR The main purpose is to visit troops as their commander in chief to relay the support of the folks ba... LARA AZAR With Central Oregon's phenomenal growth, it attracts competition. We feel that, the more choices the... PAUL AZAR The sole purpose of universal justice is to keep man's character in balance JUDY AZAR LEBLANC Those whose eyes are open cannot see for they are blinded by the lust of all that is around them, an... JUDY AZAR LEBLANC Do not let one hand say to another, 'Stop, for I have already given' JUDY AZAR LEBLANC For the beauty that adorns the earth is not imitation JUDY AZAR LEBLANC Ask not 'who will love me?' but rather, 'whom can I love?' JUDY AZAR LEBLANC Freedom is to forgive one another for a perceived wrongdoing JUDY AZAR LEBLANC When a customer receives the heat sink, we have tested it thoroughly, thus in almost every case, we ... DR. KAVEH AZAR I advise engineers to start by performing first-order calculations to see where a heat-transfer prob... DR. KAVEH AZAR Misunderstanding transpired, when common sense became the essence. MOHAMMAD NAVID NAFISI BAHABADI