What staggers me is not the persistence of illusion, but the persistence of the world in the face of illusion.

A. G. Mojtabai (1935 - 2018) was an Iranian-American author, journalist, and scholar. Born in Iran, he attended the University of Tehran and later moved to the United States. He worked as a journalist for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He wrote several books, including his memoir, A Persian Odyssey (2000). He was also a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University. Mojtabai was an expert in Middle Eastern culture and politics, and his work focused on the region's history and contemporary events. He was also a frequent lecturer at universities and foreign policy institutes, and his essays and articles appeared in many publications.