Asne Seierstad

“There are many things one can think of when one needs someone to vent one’s wrath on.”

“To say nothing means to give one's consent.”

“Os iraquianos sempre devoraram livros: são o nosso alimento e, além do amor, é a única coisa que necessitamos”

“War was a central theme in maths books too. School books - because the Taliban printed books soley for boys - did not calcualte in apples and cakes, but in bullets and kalasnikovs. Something like this: 'little Omar has a kalasnikov with three magazines. There are twenty bullets in each magazine. He uses two thirds of the bullets and kills sixty infidels does he kill with each bullet?”

“What the sounds and smells do not divulge, gossip supplies. It spreads like wildfire in the neighborhood, where everyone is watching one another's morals.”

“They played a game of dare - who could get closest to the flames?”

“Anonymity became a release, the only place to which I could turn.”