Seeing the Afghan women in their burqas, it's easy to say, Well, they're not as fully aware as I am, so why do I have to worry so much about their plight? But that's a misunderstanding. They are brutally aware of their station.

Poetry allows me to write about what I don't know, whereas journalism demands a higher level of certainty to be worthy of being written.

News isn't designed to talk about daily life in its nuances, but poetry is.

Islam doesn't have a monopoly on violence in Africa. And violence plays a particularly critical role in places where statehood is weak at best, such as the Maghreb.

You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.

It's important to understand that violent Islam is only one face of violent religion.

We know what war means, and we know what poverty means. We need to develop a better model for reaching out to the world than we have.

I was surprised by the level of sophistication of the Special Operation forces. Among them were anthropologists and PhD candidates. I felt because I understand the patterns of nineteenth-century jihad in West Africa that I was definitely going to be more advanced than they were in comprehending what the militant rallying cry was.

The future of Afghanistan is incredibly dark, and decisions are happening incredibly quickly.

I worked with two young women translators. One died and the other received a death threat from the Taliban.

Poetry isn't as relevant in the Western world as it is in Afghanistan. And not many people make time for something that doesn't feel relevant.

I can't imagine how Afghanistan's fall isn't going to be ten times faster than Iraq's.

When I would ask women to tell me landays, and they were comfortable enough to do so, they'd tell me ones that reflected the state of their own lives.