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

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.

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.

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.

We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.

God draws straight with crooked lines.

Sister, I won't ask for forgiveness, my sins are all I have.

Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it

I like business and personal life to be distinct.

Chymia, or Alchemy and Spagyrism, is the art of resolving compound bodies into their principles and of combining these again.

The future is hidden by a dark impenetrable veil, and yet we struggle to pierce through it.

Books delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.

One thing Mom taught me, "You're going to be dead a long time, so do it now!"

Asteros's Motto: "Most experience comes from bad judgement.