If I were a good artist and had a block of stone, a hammer and chisel, I would carve a beautiful woman.

I enjoyed life in Iran because we had electricity and we did not have to pump the well for ten minutes just to fill a 20-liter barrel. We did not have to carry our clothes to the river to do our laundry.

We had a dog we kept for security and we would feed him bread that fell onto the coals. I remember one day when my youngest brother and I were very hungry and had nothing to eat.

When I was about five years old, my grandmother had a big mulberry tree in her yard. She would sweep the mulberries that already covered the yard in the early mornings.