I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word.

You have to write every day, and you have to write whether you feel like it or not.

Read the kinds of things you want to write; read the kinds of things you would never write. Learn something from every writer you read.

I'm so fascinated by how people destroy each other and love each other.

I do live with the very real possibility that we don't have endless stories to tell.

You have to be able to interact with people whose politics you disagree with.

I landed in Kabul the day before Shock and Awe in Iraq, and you could all but hear the collective groan.

The jury is out as to whether the Afghans are up to the task of protecting their people.

No one ever really read to me as a child.

Syria's neighboring countries cannot and should not carry the cost of caring for refugees on their own. The international community must share the burden with them by providing economic aid, investing in development in those countries, and opening their own borders to desperate Syrian families looking for protection.

Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah, too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?

There's no excuse for the macro corruption, but Afghanistan was always an informal society with a weak central government.

I never thought what I wrote was good enough to be published. I thought of myself as completely detached from that constellation of real writers. It was completely for myself.

You don't need a cheerleader. That's the worst thing that can happen to you.

When I went to Kabul - weeks after I finished 'The Kite Runner' - I met a lot of people from all walks of life: men, women, children, people from ministries, hotel doormen, shopkeepers. And I learned from them what daily life was like when the rockets were flying overhead.

I hear from non-Afghan immigrants - Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs in France - all the time. These people have had to redefine their lives, which is what my family went through when we came to the U.S. in 1980.

Afghanistan is doomed if women are barred once again from public life.

Everything for me starts very small and snowballs. So I rarely start with the grand idea and find a place for it and narrow down. It's, really, just start small, and as I'm writing it, I begin to see - sometimes to my own surprise - what's unfolding and what's blooming.

I've learned things about the craft of writing and about structuring a book and about character development and so on that I've just learned on the fly.

The deal is such that when I begin writing something, I open a door, and those characters come in, and then they won't leave, and so I live with them every day, all day. They are there with me when I'm driving my kids to school, when I'm standing in line at the grocery store.

In my 20s, life seemed endless. At 49, I've had a chance to see how dark life can be, and I am far more aware of the constraints of time than when I wrote 'The Kite Runner.' I realise there is only a limited number of things I can do.

My books never go where I think they're going.

One of the things novels should do is shine a light on those parts of us that are common, the fibres that connect all of us. They should convey the sense that we're all connected, coming from the same tree, sharing common roots.

I would like people to have an appreciation for what happened to women under the Taliban, as in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns.' I hope they get a sense of how connected we all are.

My freshman year in college, I got a job working security. This was a high-tech building in Santa Clara, engineers coming in and out all the time.

I don't remember how I picked up 'Different Seasons,' but it was a book I read on a grave shift. I was absolutely floored by it; 'The Body,' a story about kids who go searching for a corpse in the woods, impacted me especially.

We all have to start somewhere, and doing something is better than nothing at all. Start small so you don't get discouraged and give up. Remember it is all about consistency.

Fitness is not about being better than someone else... It's about being better than you used to be.

I'm proud of myself. I could break and go get all this plastic surgery and get my nose fixed and get lipo or do whatever, but I haven't chosen to do that because I know I'm a great person. I'm pretty damn hot, if you ask me.

I know my soul is beautiful; I know I'm a good person. And that will never change for me.

I'm the ugly sister. I'm the fat one. I'm the transvestite. I have had those mean things said about me at least twice a day for the last five years. It's horrible, you know? But I can brush that stuff off.

All the circuit training, it's cardio circuit training, so everything you're doing, you're still running up your heart rate. You're burning, I think, triple the amount of calories than if you were just weight lifting.

Now we have so many more social outlets, so many ways to be stalked and bullied. If social media is too much for you to handle, then don't have a Twitter or Facebook account. Just be yourself. Be who you want to be.

I don't believe love is fickle. I believe when you love someone, you are allowed to love from afar. You don't have to be with that person in order to love him.

Leopard print has been my thing forever! When I was a teenager my entire room was done in leopard print - it's timeless, chic, and always in style. When in doubt... leopard!

I've learned from experience you just never know what happens in life.

I think the beauty of growing up is not really knowing and figuring it out for yourself.

There is a method to the madness when it comes to placing everything in your refrigerator.

Growing up, I was always chubby. My girlfriends were always running around in two-pieces, and I never felt comfortable to do that.

I love hard; I love who I love, and I don't make any qualms about it.

I don't believe in revenge. When people are bullies it's because of a deeper-rooted issue - either their family life is tough or they're being bullied by someone bigger than they are.

People hate us for showing stuff, and they hate us when we say, 'Fine, we won't show it anymore.'

Your life is meant for you to understand and process, not to make anyone else happy.

I have moles and freckles, and they irritate me. They are an insecurity of mine, and I wish I could have clear, beautiful skin.

We live in the public eye, so if one of us makes a mistake, it affects everyone, which makes me think about what I'm doing in life more.

The Armenian Genocide is such a controversial and very sensitive issue because the Turkish and Armenian people disagree about the facts of what actually happened. I know how strongly Armenians feel about the Genocide, and how it's never been recognised. At the same time, I do not hold today's generation of people accountable.

All the makeup in the world won't make a difference without great skincare.

I had parents who were incredibly loving and nurturing and always made me feel beautiful, so I never really questioned that.

When I did the cover of 'Cosmo International,' Turkey picked it up and I got a lot of backlash for it.

I'm like a connoisseur of dry shampoo, so I'm really picky.