“I eat my heart out alone.”

“...the dearer a book was to my heart, the more battered and bruised it became.”

“I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.”

“When I walked down the streets, I asked myself, are these my people?, is this my hometown, am I who I am?”

“I wish wish I could steal the intricacies of language. But give my kids a break—remember, most of them were fed on Steinbeck’s The Pearl. ”

“More than anything else, I miss the hope. In jail, we we had the hope that we might get out, go to college, have fun, go to the movies. I am twenty-seven. I don't know what it means to love. I don't want to be secret and hidden forever. I want to know, to know who this Nassrin is.You'd call it the ordeal of freedom, I guess.”

“It was one of those rare nights when I was kept awake not by my nightmares and anxieties but by something exciting and exhilarating. Most nights I lay awake waiting for some unexpected disaster…I think I somehow felt that as long as I was conscious, nothing bad could happen…”