I think the changes that have happened, there have been come positive, but by and large, you have to say the changes have been negative. The situation has reached a fairly critical stage in Afghanistan.

Gone. Vanished. Nothing left. Nothing said.

I was good at being a doctor; my patients liked me. At times people trust you with things they wouldn't tell their spouses. It was a real privilege.

The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.

Attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun.

She would grab whatever she could -a look , a whisper , a moan - to salvage from perishing , to perserve. But time is most unforgivving of fires , and she couldn't , in the end , save it all .

A sudden happiness catches me unawares. I feel it trickling into me, and my eyes go liquid with gratitude and hope.