Quotes from Asne Seierstad

As a woman, you accept the situation, adapt to it, and do your best, whereas men would choose violence.

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 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.

If I leave, reality will devour me. Then they will all really be dead.

Even in a war, someone has to take care of daily life. Someone has to feed and clothe the children.

I think when you start to get afraid, it's time to leave.

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

When I decided to stay in Iraq, I decided to take the fear out of my body and put it into a freezer.

If my name had not been cleared, it would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, to continue as a journalist.

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.

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.

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.

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