Nastaran

“What kind of mortuary is this, anyway? It hasn't even got electricity. This sort of town needs more and more of it, what with all the migrants, refugees, and war wounded, not to mention all the executions that are taking place, and all those young comrades on the run...”
― Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel

“Who am I trying to fool? I'm well aware that at every stage of history there have been crimes against humanity, and they couldn't have happened without humans to commit them. The crimes that have been visited on my children have been committed, and still are being committed, by young people just like them, by people stirring up their delusions, giving them delusions of grandeur. So why do I imagine that people might improve? Everything going on around us seems to indicate that the values our forebears passed down to us no longer apply. Instead, we have sown the seeds of mistrust, scepticism and resignation, which will grow into a jungle of nihilism and cynicism, a jungle in which you will never find the courage to even mention the names of goodness, truth and common humanity, a corp that is now bearing fruit with remarkable speed. We're obliged to dig our own children's graves, but what's even more shocking is that these crimes are creating a future in which there is no place for truth and human decency. Nobody dare to speak truth anymore. Oh, my poor children ... we are burying you, but you should realize that we are also digging a grave for our future. Can you hear me?”
― Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel

“People who are drowning in a sea of problems and have lost all sense of self-worth often grasp at egotism and alienation from everything outside themselves as their only point of fixity, and this can help anchor and fortify them--if only to the point of madness. This is what it can come to, then, if you live in a hostile environment and have lost all your dignity. (61)”
― Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel

“نمیدانم. اما چه درهم پیچ و گره خورده است درونم، و چه زوزه های خوار شده ای را می شنوم، و چه نا توانمندی غریب و کشنده ای حس می کنم از بابت آنچه عقل نامیده می شود”
― محمود دولت آبادی / Mahmoud Dolat Abadi, سُلوک