There isn't, even now, a great tradition of novel-writing in Afghanistan. Most of the literature is in the form of poetry.

When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

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

My father and I did work for a while at the flea market and there really are rows of Afghans working there, some of whom I am related to.

I also felt The Kite Runner was a story that would lend itself well to a visual retelling in a graphic novel.

It's often a matter of sitting in front of the computer and worrying. It's what writing comes down to--worrying that things aren't going to work out.

I laughed. Partly at the joke, partly at how Afghan humor never changed. Wars were waged, the Internet was invented, and a robot had rolled on the surface of Mars, and in Afghanistan we were still telling Mullah Nasruddin jokes.