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

If we can't understand the Afghan family, we can't understand Afghanistan.

I would like my book to give people insight to the war before and after, but I don't think anyone could read my book and suddenly make up her mind about the war. I want to write for everybody.

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 you've lived in a dictatorship for thirty years, you're used to people lying to you.

I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write.