If you were the poor, suffering was your currency.

At that moment, she cannot think of a more reckless, irrational thing than choosing to become a parent.

My father and I did work for a while at the flea market and there really are rows of Afghans working there, some of whom I am related to.

The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.

I remember reading 'The Grapes of Wrath' in high school in 1983. My family had immigrated to the U.S. three years before, and I had spent the better part of the first two years learning English. John Steinbeck's book was the first book I read in English where I had an 'Aha!' moment, namely in the famed turtle chapter.

some stories don't need telling

I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty