You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.

The rope that pulls you from the flood can become a noose around your neck.

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

All stories I write are compulsive. Anything I’ve ever written was because I don’t have a choice. I write stories because I can’t wait to tell it, I can’t wait to see how it ends.

Laila has moved on. Because in the end she knows that’s all she can do. That and hope.

Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.

Kabul was a thriving cosmopolitan city with its vibrant artistic, intellectual and cultural life. There were poets, musicians, and writers. There was also an influx of western culture, art, and literature in the '60s and '70s.