and every day I thank [God] that I am alive, not because I fear death, but because my wife has a husband and my son is not an orphan.

Every woman needed a husband, even if he did silence the song in her.

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

Her beauty was the talk of the valley.It skipped two generations of women in our family, but it sure didn't bypass you, Laila.

Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.

I have been a fan of comic books since childhood.

She would grab whatever she could -a look , a whisper , a moan - to salvage from perishing , to perserve. But time is most unforgivving of fires , and she couldn't , in the end , save it all .