As a writer, my homeland is the desk where I work.

Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.

Pakistan produces people of extraordinary bravery. But no nation should ever require its citizens to be that brave.

On the journey towards the beloved, you live by dying at every step

There is nothing that torments Satan more than the sight of a faithful in prayer.

How 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.

Afghanistan had collapsed and everyone's life now lies broken at different levels within the rubble.

There are no innocent people in a guilty nation.

To visit certain streets was to realise that only the sky remained unchanged there.

All great artists know that part of their task is to light up the distance between two human beings.

History is the third parent.

To be is the greatest paradox of life facing death.

I could be the ceaseless mist that fogs your colourless eyes when you're lost in your universes.

I refuse to believe that gods want to make mortals unhappy and torment them. That's what humans do. And humans are very definitely not divine.

I think you can improve on that natural ability with training and exposure to great leaders of the past and to management theories.

I think so, Silence of the Lambs was a great, suspenseful thriller and I would expect Red Dragon to be similar. And I think it's very character driven.

I can't say enough about Ireland. I can't. I'd move there.

All the arts come from God and are to be respected as divine inventions

I want to be one of those people, be they writers, poets, musicians, who leaves clues for the next generation. The really good people leave clues that help feed the human race. That's my aspiration.

Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.

It's nice to win an award, I would assume. I've never won one, but I would imagine it's great. I have no idea what I'll do.