William Saroyan

Here you have someone who is a great figure in world literature. He is Hrant Matevossian. No nation has anyone who writes better stories than he does. His writings show, with great depth, the Armenians' part in the history of humanity. No writer of another nation can write as Hrant Matevossian does. I have read his works in translation. He writes about Armenian life and identity, and that Armenian identity is so true that I am astonished, delighted and proud. You have many writers and poets, but you must forgive me if I say that the strength that is needed — enormous strength! — is in Hrant Matevossian. And I rejoice, because a nation, you must admit, becomes known to the world through its art. And when that art is so great, the nation too grows greater in the foreigner's mind.