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

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.

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.

I'm Mozart with a focus on the tide Hiding the inconsistencies of man behind water and wine

Both my husband and I give a lot of ourselves in what we do because that is our public lives but in my private life, I have an intrinsic right to be left alone.

Anything we want to do, we can do. If we can dream it, it can be done.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.

I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as good as you want it to be.

Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.

My routine is get up, have a cup of coffee, make a shake, have a workout, go walk the dog.

A good heavy book holds you down. It's an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic.

I think it'd be great to own a fun concept store with my friends and just sell books and records.

Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze. I will not budge for no man's pleasure.