She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies, and sometimes not.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

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

I don't know whom or what he was defying. [...] [M]aybe the God he had never believed in.

War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.

There are so many orgizations that do amazing work. I represent not only my own foundation, but the UN Refugee Agency, which has been around since 1951, and has helped 30 million refugees around the world.

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