Newsmaker: Marjane Satrapi
By Phil Morehart
.....
What role did libraries and education play in shaping your life? Having lived in Iran and now Paris, what are the major differences you see in terms of the institutions and their public perceptions in different countries?
Education and culture are the basis of everything. Culture allows you to always speak with others because you have a basis. If I were the minister of culture for the world, I would make every student wiser by requiring them to travel to five continents before the age of 18. If you travel and see other people, then it becomes much more difficult to make war with them, because you know them.
Even though I was an only child, I never had lots of toys, but I could have as many books as I wanted. I was reading a lot, and I think that’s what saved my life. In my country under the Shah, there were books banned. And after the revolution there were other books banned. But they were all on the black market. When I first came to America I went a lot to book shops and spoke to people. I have never seen the equivalent in Europe—you have these reading groups, you come to listen to the writer. People really like to read in America, and they organize to make things happen. I really have the feeling that people are there to listen. It’s a whole exchange between me, the writer, and the people in front of me, which is really cool. I read somewhere that in America you have more public libraries than you have McDonald’s. That’s good.
#مرجان_ساترایی
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2014/09/09/newsmaker-marjane-satrapi/
@SocialistL
1June 4, 2026 986 1
