Democracy is not simply a question of structures. It is a state of mind. It is an activity.

Despite the dubious statistics … democracy is a thing of value for which we should be fighting.

Religions . . . seem to avoid mountain passes.

I left things out - my motivations, my history, my emotional responses - because I am not good at understanding them or writing about them. I tried and it was generally boring and always unconvincing. Most importantly I wanted to try to place Afghans and Afghanistan in the foreground rather than my own character.

I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.

Democracy is not simply a question of structures. It is a state of mind. It is an activity.

The question shouldn't be what we ought to do, but what we can do.