Asne Seierstad

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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'.”

“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.”

“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.”

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