We liked to be known as the clever girls. When we decorated our hands with henna for holidays and weddings, we drew calculus and chemical formulae instead of flowers and butterflies.

We are starving for education... it's like a precious gift. It's like a diamond.

We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.

I don't want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.

Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.

When someone tells me about Malala, the girl who was shot by the Taliban - that's my definition for her - I don't think she's me. Now I don't even feel as if I was shot. Even my life in Swat feels like a part of history or a movie I watched. Things change. God has given us a brain and a heart which tell us how to live.

The best way to fight terrorism is to invest in education. Instead of sending weapons, send teachers.