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.

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.

There is nothing I would change - to change it I would have had to write a totally different book.

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

As a war correspondent, you have to weigh the risk you run against the story you can get.

Being a war correspondent, and having covered four wars, I know that wars very seldom solve things.

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.