For you, a thousand times over

I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.

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

Her impulse, her need, to be the corrector of injustices, warden of the downtrodden flock. And

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.

You say you felt a presence, but I only sensed an absence. A vague pain without a source. I was like a patient who cannot tell the doctor where it hurts, only that it does.

Usually in films, when Muslims pray, it's either before or after they've blown something up.