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.

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.

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.

I always try to describe the situation just as it is. I try to find sentences that I believe tell the story best. Even my articles are more literary than ordinary news stories.

Clarity enables Empowerment

You always have a choice. Don't ever imagine you don't. Whatever you do, it's a decision and you have to accept responsibility for it. That's when honor becomes more than empty words.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.

I don't underestimate the power of mental preparation throughout all of my training. I'm in a much better state of mind about competition.

I never went after character payments. I'm pretty much terrible at naming characters, so I usually name them after people I know.

We're just trying to figure out what being a good citizen is, what participating in a democracy is, what taking responsibility for being an American citizen in a global context means to us.

Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, all countries will respect America far more when I'm leading it, far more than they do under past administrations.

It's offensive to me to be called a cost cutter.

My dresses are very reasonably priced, for dresses that are cut on the body.

The record of a month's roulette playing at Monte Carlo can afford us material for discussing the foundations of knowledge.