Iranian sayings braid tenderness with irony, mystic yearning with streetwise wit. Here the rose keeps the thorn’s company, the nightingale sings to a silent heart, and the reed-flute tells of separation and return. Poets and grandmothers alike weigh words as carefully as saffron, brief, fragrant, and exacting. Themes circle love, hospitality, dignity, patience in hardship, and the restless dance of fate on a chessboard of dust and jasmine. Between tavern and prayer rug, caravan and courtyard, these lines invite reflection, kindness, and a steady gaze toward justice.
"When I came out, and for many years afterwards, it had become a habit for me to sit and read and read and read, like an obsession. I would take 20 books, and not come out until I'd finished them. It took me a while to change that habit"
"In Afghanistan, this is the problem, because everybody holds a piece of that mirror, and they all look at it and claim that they hold the entire truth"
"One thing I congratulate everyone on is the great explosion which has occurred in Washington's Black House and the very important scandal which has gripped leaders of America"
"A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation"
"How can you defy fear? Fear is a human instinct, just like hunger. Whether you like it or not, you become hungry. Similarly with fear. But I have learned to train myself to live with this fear"
"Women are the victims of this patriarchal culture, but they are also its carriers. Let us keep in mind that every oppressive man was raised in the confines of his mother's home"
"When we criticize in Iran the actions of the government, the fundamentalists say that we and the Bush Administration are in the same camp. The funny thing is that human rights activists and Mr. Bush can never be situated in the same group"
"What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt"
"Democracy doesn't recognize east or west; democracy is simply people's will. Therefore, I do not acknowledge that there are various models of democracy; there is just democracy itself"
