As the only woman, I was able to sit with the officers in front, with a glass of vodka in one hand and a cucumber in the other. That's how I went to my first war.

There is no journalist without opinions, and there's no real objectivity, but we can strive toward it.

If my name had not been cleared, it would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, to continue as a journalist.

As a woman, you accept the situation, adapt to it, and do your best, whereas men would choose violence.

I was thinking, there are 5 million people, and I am just one of those 5 million. In the build-up to the war you see children playing in the street, and you think, ah, I'm going to be okay.

If I lose, then I have to accept that my way of writing books is not the way society says it's okay to write.

When I decided to stay in Iraq, I decided to take the fear out of my body and put it into a freezer.