I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.

For you, a thousand times over

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one.

If my book generates any sort of dialogue among Afghans, then I think it will have done a service to the community.

You’re not going to cry, are you? - I am not going to cry! Not over you. Not in a thousand years.

Creating means vandalizing the lives of other people, turning them into unwilling and unwitting participants. You steal their desires, their dreams, pocket their flaws, their suffering. You take what does not belong to you. You do this knowingly.

I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.