Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.

I don't know the nuts and bolts of writing. I studied medicine. I was a pre-med nerd. So everything I learned, I know about writing is very instinctive.

I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.

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

There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth.

If the story had been about anyone else, it would been dismissed as laaf, that Afghan tendency to exaggerate ---sadly, almost a national affliction; if someone bragged that his son was a doctor, chances were the kid had once passed a biology test in high school.

After all, life is not a Hindi movie.