Asne Seierstad

I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write. ”

The judgment means a lot. As a journalist being accused of invading someone's privacy, there is always a risk that it will stick to your name. ”

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. ”

The book came after the fall of the Taliban, it says something about Afghan family life. Those kind of stories - what happens behind the scenes on a TV screen - are important. ”

The family is the single most important institution in Afghan culture. It is described in the country's constitution as the 'fundamental pillar of society'. ”

If we can't understand the Afghan family, we can't understand Afghanistan. ”

There is nothing I would change - to change it I would have had to write a totally different book. ”