The Chinese say it's better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.

There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.

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

Blood is a powerful thing

I wanted to write about Afghanistan before the Soviet war because that is largely a forgotten period in modern Afghan history.

It's often a matter of sitting in front of the computer and worrying. It's what writing comes down to--worrying that things aren't going to work out.

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.