I work in the most non-Communist job. I work for ‘Martha Stewart Living.’ Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
The daily quota I’ve set for myself is 500 words or approximately a page and a half double-spaced. Which isn’t much, except that I’m extremely slow, extremely meticulous. ‘Le mot juste’ haunts me. On a good day, I will finally secrete the 500th word at about 5 o’clock, and I’ll reward myself by going to Housing Works Bookstore to read. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
I take pride in taking care of all the housework so that my wife, who works as a designer for Martha Stewart, won’t need to sacrifice any of her leisure time when she gets home. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
I need to feel as if everything is clean and in its proper place before I can even attempt to write one word. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I make the bed, I put away the dishes, maybe I dust, maybe I do the laundry, maybe I go to the post office. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
I wake when my wife wakes, at 7:30 A.M. I’d like to sleep longer, but she has to go off to work, and I’d be plagued with guilt. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
More people work at Walmart than anywhere else in the United States, but you wouldn’t know that from our literature. I’m trying to get at the reality of this country by portraying the lives of many of my friends who I left behind in Pittsburgh. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
My childhood was defined by my father’s absence. His presence looms so large. Up until the age of 18, he was a superstar for me. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
My sister married an American and took his name, and my brother has shortened Sayrafiezadeh to Sayraf. So now he’s Jacob Sayraf, or sometimes Jake Sayraf. He made the change when he was a teenager, prior to the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis. So I don’t think it was motivated by any anti-Iranian sentiment in the United States. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
There was something so immensely redemptive and exciting for me to imagine that my unknown father was not just a man who had abandoned me but a noble man of adventure who had no choice. Said Sayrafiezadeh Read Quote
