The family is the single most important institution in Afghan culture. It is described in the country's constitution as the 'fundamental pillar of society'.

We don’t grow up in vacuums. We grow up in societies.

I would like my book to give people insight to the war before and after, but I don’t think anyone could read my book and suddenly make up her mind about the war. I want to write for everybody.

If I lose, then I have to accept that my way of writing books is not the way society says it’s okay to write.

If you’ve lived in a dictatorship for thirty years, you’re used to people lying to you.

I’m trying to see my own country with fresh eyes.

There is no journalist without opinions, and there’s no real objectivity, but we can strive toward it.

I was thinking, there are 5 million people, and I am just one of those 5 million. In the build-up to the war you see children playing in the street, and you think, ah, I’m going to be okay.

The judgment means a lot. As a journalist being accused of invading someone’s privacy, there is always a risk that it will stick to your name.

There is nothing I would change – to change it I would have had to write a totally different book.