Now, especially in public places, you always have that unease. When the children were cast, if I thought that they might be victims of violence because of participating in this movie, we would have chosen children from outside this country.

I’m all you have in this world Mariam, and when I’m gone you’ll have nothing. You ARE nothing!

The story of what has happened to women in Afghanistan, however, is a very important one, and fertile ground for fiction.

Dr. Bashiri, if I ever want to put a curse in someone, I say, 'May God give you a restaurant.

At least, it is encouraging to me that President [Barack] Obama has put Afghanistan front and center in this broader so-called War on terror, and that he is taking a different approach to Afghanistan.

A sudden happiness catches me unawares. I feel it trickling into me, and my eyes go liquid with gratitude and hope.

hills that stand soft and a sky that stands high and blue, and the sun setting behind a windmill, and always, always, hazy strings of mountains that fall and fall away on the horizon.