Marjane Satrapi

In life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's because they're idiots. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance... Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.

The only thing I knew for sure was that if I allowed myself to be anything less than what I was, I would end up completely crushed.

I wanted to be an educated, liberated woman. I wanted to fight against injustice and inequality. And that was going to make me a target.

I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the West. I had no identity.

I wanted to be an individual. But how can you be an individual in a collective society?

There is nothing harder than giving up your own country.

Freedom had a price, and I was the one to pay it.

Fear is what gets us stuck. Faith is what gets us moving.

The only thing you can do is to try and know who you really are and be true to yourself.

We all have our own reality, our own way of understanding things. We all have our own madness.

I had learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor.

The key to happiness is freedom... And the key to freedom is courage.