I didn't want my gender to determine whether or not I could cover breaking news.

Let's get one thing straight: I am not an adrenaline junkie. Just because you cover conflict doesn't mean you thrive on adrenaline. It means you have a purpose, and you feel it is very important for people back home to see what is happening on the front line, especially if we are sending American soldiers there.

I didn't know a single female photographer who covered conflict who even had a boyfriend, much less a husband or a baby.

By the time the United States went to war with Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, I had made three trips to the country. I covered the fall of the Taliban in Kandahar and have been returning routinely for the past 14 years.

A lot of the people that stop you - well, they're not nuts, exactly. They're more like super-fans. They think that I'm some sort of rich guy, that everyone in the movies is making the kind of money Angelina Jolie is making. They don't realize that most of my life has been a struggle.

The last thing you want is a group of senators who just lent you seven and a half billion dollars to sit back and go, 'Look at these jerks and how they're using taxpayer money.'

When you look at Regis, he really and truly does feel for those people, and I feel like I've done it too. You're giving away somebody else's money so what do you care? It's not your money.

I was broke from 19 to 26, borrowing money from my parents or my brothers or sisters every week to pay the bills.