I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write.

As the only woman, I was able to sit with the officers in front, with a glass of vodka in one hand and a cucumber in the other. That's how I went to my first war.

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.

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

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.

We have believing in this innocent feeling of nothing will ever happen to us, because all catastrophes always broad and happening to anyone else.

When I decided to stay in Iraq, I decided to take the fear out of my body and put it into a freezer.

If we can't understand the Afghan family, we can't understand Afghanistan.

If I leave, reality will devour me. Then they will all really be dead.

As a woman, you accept the situation, adapt to it, and do your best, whereas men would choose violence.

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.

Works of art make rules

When life presents you with a problem, have the courage, find the solution and become bigger than the problem.

The purpose of my work is not to educate people, rather it is to enrich human life with self-awareness.

Soil is earth’s barefoot and when we walk barefoot, two barefoot touches each other with love!

There is so much left of it to explore.

Buddhists talk about nirvana in very much the same terms as monotheists describe God.

So let's take our time to say what we want. Use what we got before it's all gone.

I find a very guilty pleasure in dark themes and vibes, and finding where the transcending nature of awareness meets this darkness.

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.

Who wins at the end of the day? The self-satisfied people who heatedly debate some obscure details? Or the people who sidestep the entire debate and get started?