I don't think the function of writing, at least for me as a fiction writer, is to say to people, "Here's the answer." It's not an op-ed.

Childbirth changed my perception of my wife. She was now the bloodied special forces soldier who had fought and risked everything for our family.

Islam is not a race, yet Islamophobia partakes of racist characteristics.

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.

It seems an obvious thing to say, but you should not imagine that we Pakistanis are all potential terrorists, just as we should not imagine that you Americans are all undercover assassins.

I think sometimes feeling that you've been marginalized opens you up to the realization that, in their own lives, almost everyone experiences marginalization, a kind of foreigner sense.

All human stories are migration stories because everyone is a refugee from their own childhood.

Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change.

I think massive migration is inevitable. As sea levels rise, as climate change happens, as fertile fields become arid, as wars are fought, people are going to move. They always have.

When the uncertain future becomes the past, the past in turn becomes uncertain.

It's important to have a non-nostalgic view and say, let's look forward, because if we don't, all we'll hear are voices telling us to go back.

A soul needs a purpose to live and so I concluded that my purpose was to kill everyone besides myself. I felt alive.--Gaara

Nothing can touch the one who is oodasin (one unperturbed by worldly life). After attaining Knowledge of the Self, if one applies awareness of the Self, one can remain unperturbed (oodasin).

If you are not realizing your desires, you are not desiring in faith with all your heart.

Nothing awakens the conscience like a lot of money.

Millions of pages cloaked in dust and inspiration and wisdom.

...but now the worst crime was pretending to be something you were not.

She nodded, jotting something in her notebook. You’re writing that down? Has the interview started?” Lee, whenever you’re talking to a reporter, you’re being interviewed.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people try their hand at this demanding profession (humor columnist). After a few months, almost all of them have given up and gone back to the ninth grade.

You'll be old and you never lived, and you kind of feel silly to lie down and die and to never have lived, to have been a job chaser and never have lived.

Help me to change the world is an invitation to be authentic, to follow your heart, to be free of superstitions and lies. And I'm not asking you to try to change the world. Don't try: just do it.