It's often a matter of sitting in front of the computer and worrying. It's what writing comes down to--worrying that things aren't going to work out.

I think the scale of the conflict [in Afghanistan] has dramatically changed in 2003. You're now facing a much more motivated, well-supported enemy. I don't see any quick end to this thing.

Afghan women, as a group, I think their suffering has been equaled by very few other groups in recent world history.

It was you Nabi. It was always you. Didn't you know?

It's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good.

I would give them (aspiring writers) the oldest advice in the craft: Read and write. Read a lot. Read new authors and established ones, read people whose work is in the same vein as yours and those whose genre is totally different. You've heard of chain-smokers. Writers, especially beginners, need to be chain-readers. And lastly, write every day. Write about things that get under your skin and keep you up at night.

There isn't, even now, a great tradition of novel-writing in Afghanistan. Most of the literature is in the form of poetry.