I think there's a natural link between the fact that our self is a story that we make up and that we're drawn to stories. It resonates, in a way.

In a way, every parent is sort of dependent on the benevolence of the society around them to take care of their children.

Readers don't work for writers. They work for themselves.

I think writing is a very political act. I think that any writer who says it's not, is simply a writer who is disavowing the political connotations of what they write.

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.

So in many ways, the bombing at the end of this year and the terrorist attack of last year in Peshawar have bookended both those years in a very unfortunate way. But at a bigger picture since, the impression in Pakistan is that things are actually improving on the terrorism front quite dramatically.

I was, in my own eyes, a veritable James Bond — only younger, darker, and possibly better paid.