Afghanistan had collapsed and everyone's life now lies broken at different levels within the rubble.
Nadeem AslamHow keen everyone is to make this world their home forgetting its impermanence It's like trying to see and name constellations in a fireworks display.
Nadeem AslamThe neighbourhood is a place of...intrigue and emotional espionage, where when two people stop to talk on the street their tongues are like the two halves of a scissor coming together, cutting reputations and good names to shreds.
Nadeem AslamThere are times in this life when a person must do or say things he doesn't want to. Human beings and chains, it is the oldest acquaintanceship in the world.
Nadeem AslamWomen joked amongst themselves: 'Why do you think a bride cries on her wedding day? It's for the love that this marriage is putting an end to for all eternity. Men may think a woman has no past- "you were born and then I married you"- but men are fools.
Nadeem AslamThe bullet that has hit us Muslims today left the gun centuries ago when we let the clergy decide that knowledge and education were not important.
Nadeem AslamAll those who love know exactly the limit they're prepared to go to. They know exactly what is required.
Nadeem AslamNothing is an accident: it's always someone's fault; perhaps-but no one teaches us how to live with our mistakes. Everyone is isolated, alone with his or her anguish and guilt, and too penetrating a question can mean people are not able to face one another the next day.
Nadeem AslamThis is among the few things that can be said about love with any confidence. It is small enough to be contained within the heart but, pull thin, it would drape the entire world.
Nadeem AslamPaper is the strongest material in the world. Things under which a mountain will crumble, you can place on paper and it will hold: beauty at its most intense; love at its fiercest; the greatest grief; the greatest rage.
Nadeem AslamPakistan produces people of extraordinary bravery. But no nation should ever require its citizens to be that brave.
Nadeem Aslam