One time, when I was very little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples.

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

All my life, I'd been around men. That night, I discovered the tenderness of a woman.

Michael Bealmear is a philanthropist, and he has become interested in the issue of refugees, and he proposed that we do an event in his community, where we could dedicate an entire evening focused on the global refugee crisis, focused primarily on Afghanistan.

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

You can not stop you from being who you are.

Regret... when it comes to you, I have oceans of it.