Reality Has Become So Intolerable,

I Believe That It Is Only Through Empathy, That The Pain Experienced By An Algerian Woman, A North Korean Dissident, A Rwandan Child Or An Iraqi Prisoner, Becomes Real To Me And Not Just Passing News. And It Is At Times Like This When I Ask Myself, Am I Prepared - Like Huck Finn - To Give Up Sunday School Heaven For The Kind Of Hell That Huck Chose?

It Is Amazing How, When All Possibilities Seem To Be Taken Away From You, The Minutest Opening Can Become A Great Freedom.

I Believe In Empathy. I Believe In The Kind Of Empathy That Is Created Through Imagination And Through Intimate, Personal Relationships. I Am A Writer And A Teacher, So Much Of My Time Is Spent Interpreting Stories And Connecting To Other Individuals. It Is The Urge To Know More About Ourselves And Others That Creates Empathy. Through Imagination And Our Desire For Rapport, We Transcend Our Limitations, Freshen Our Eyes, And Are Able To Look At Ourselves And The World Through A New And Alternative Lens.

Living In The Islamic Republic Is Like Having Sex With Someone You Loathe.

The Best Work Of Literature To Represent The American Dream Is 'the Great Gatsby' By F. Scott Fitzgerald. It Shows Us How Dreaming Can Be Tainted By Reality, And That If You Don't Compromise, You May Suffer.