For a novelist, it's kind of an onerous burden to represent an entire culture.

I came to the US as an immigrant and I recall vividly those first few years in California, the brief time we spent on welfare, and the difficult task of assimilating into a new culture.

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person's heart

And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.

I think the emancipation of women in Afghanistan has to come from inside, through Afghans themselves, gradually, over time.

You don't have to donate money, it can be clothes, or books, or mediavl supplies. So there's so much that can be done [for refugees], the most difficult thing is that first step that decision to do something.

People say that eyes are windows to the soul.