"Someone who is engrossed in literature has learned that every individual has different dimensions to his personality. ... Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account. It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else's shoes and understand the other's different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them ... If we had learned this one lesson our society would have been in much better shape today."
--Iranian student in Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
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