Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.

But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you. Like a puzzle. Vous comprenez? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand.

Hassan and I looked at each other. Cracked up. The Hindi kid would soon learn what the British learned earlier in the century, and what the Russians would eventually learn by the late 1980's: that Afghans are an independent people. Afghans cherish customs but abhor rules. And so it was with kite fighting. The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck.

Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.

For you, a thousand times over

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

she held her breath, and in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day