You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.

People find meaning and redemption in the most unusual human connections.

President Karzai is an incredibly kind and decent man. I had the pleasure of meeting him, and he genuinely cares for his people. But I think he had too much of a tendency to want to rule by listening to all voices at all times.

When I go to Afghanistan, I realize I've been spared, due to a random genetic lottery, by being born to people who had the means to get out. Every time I go to Afghanistan I am haunted by that.

If culture was a house, then language was the key to the front door, [and] to all rooms inside.

A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later.

She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.