Åsne Seierstad > Quotes

“When a man has everything and does not know what more to do, he tries to teach his donkey to talk.”
― Asne Seirstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“What the sounds and smells do not divulge, gossip supplies. It spreads like wildfire in the neighborhood, where everyone is watching one another's morals.”
― Asne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“War was a central theme in maths books too. School books - because the Taliban printed books soley for boys - did not calcualte in apples and cakes, but in bullets and kalasnikovs. Something like this: 'little Omar has a kalasnikov with three magazines. There are twenty bullets in each magazine. He uses two thirds of the bullets and kills sixty infidels does he kill with each bullet?”
― Asne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“We want to be loved; failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised. At all costs we want to stir up some sort of feeling in others. Our soul abhors a vacuum. At all costs it longs for contact. Hjalmar Söderberg, Doktor Glas, 1905”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Anonymity became a release, the only place to which I could turn.”
― Asne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“In Afghanistan a woman’s longing for love is taboo. It is forbidden by the tribes’ notion of honor and by the mullahs. Young people have no right to meet, to love, or to choose. Love has little to do with romance; on the contrary, love can be interpreted as committing a serious crime, punishable by death.”
― Asne Seirstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“Under a bad leadership Serbs are capable of committing the most terrible atrocities; under good leaders we can do great deeds. It's like a field - if it's not cared for, the weeds will take over. But if you tend it, water and feed the seeds, you will read a bountiful harvest. Serbs are lazy, we lack discipline and have no capacity for self-criticism." With Their Backs to the World”
― Seierstad Åsne

“To say nothing means to give one's consent.”
― Asne Seierstad

“Do you know what is our problem? We know everything about our weapons, but we know nothing about how to use a telephone.”
― Åsne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“They played a game of dare - who could get closest to the flames?”
― Asne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“There are many things one can think of when one needs someone to vent one’s wrath on.”
― Asne Seierstad , The Bookseller of Kabul

“Evil can kill a human being, but never conquer a people!’ *”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Our answer is more democracy, more openness and more humanity. But never naivety.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Os iraquianos sempre devoraram livros: são o nosso alimento e, além do amor, é a única coisa que necessitamos”
― Asne Seierstad

“Sadiq pondered the nature of war. Everyone was sure that they had the right to the land and the others should be forced to leave. That they had God on their side while the others were in league with the devil. Everyone believed they owned the truth, and everyone seemed thirsty for blood.”
― Åsne Seierstad, Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad

“Through the book, I want to give something back to the community from which it sprang. My royalties for this book in Norway are being donated in full to the ‘En av oss’ (One of Us) foundation. The foundation’s statutes allow for the money to be distributed to a wide range of causes nationally and internationally, in the areas of development, education, sport, culture and the environment. I have chosen to let those who contributed most to the book decide which causes will receive support. I think that would be in the spirit of their children.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Wild animals walked in a straight line, tame ones tended to wander more aimlessly.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway

“What went wrong? Well, comrades, when the American investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, it was not just a bank going broke, it was a political ideology going bankrupt. The failure of market liberalism. It ended decades of naive, uncritical faith in the market looking after itself. It does not!”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“A society gets the graffiti it deserves,’ commented one criminologist on the street galleries that grew ever scruffier.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Dagens Ryssland […]: kontroll och övervakning, ledarkult, hat mot främmande, inre och yttre fiender. Militarisering av språk, utbildning och människors medvetande. Ett ekonomiskt system underordnat staten. Återupplivande av traditionella värden och en uppmaning att vända tillbaka till förlorade ”rötter”.”
― Åsne Seierstad, Ufred: Russland fra innsiden

“Be yourself!’ said Gro. ‘No one will hear any of you otherwise, still less trust you. That’s the most important thing of all. If you’re not yourself you just can’t sustain it in the long term.”
― Asne Seierstad

“I'm not a great delegator - it often takes just as long to explain something to someone as it does to do it yourself.”
― ASNE SEIERSTAD

“Los talibanes eran poco versados en la historia islámica o afgana, y tampoco les interesaba lo más mínimo.”
― Asne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“Buzkashi”
― Åsne Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul

“Gerd called life 'existing minute by minute'. Every single minute felt like a battle. Time went on but life had stopped.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway

“Pessoas cruéis veem um velhinho
a caminho da minha cama
e ainda me perguntam por que choro e arranco os cabelos

Meu Deus! De novo me mandastes a noite escura
e de novo tremo da cabeça aos pés
por ter que subir na cama que odeio.”
― Asne Seierstad, Bookseller of Kabul

“Anders Behring Breivik was formally charged under paragraph l47 of the Norwegian Penal Code, the so-called terror paragraph, which carries a maximum penalty of twenty-one years in prison, with the possibility of extension, if the convicted prisoner represents a danger to society.”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“Do you know what is our problem? We know everything about our weapons, but we know nothing about how to use a telephone.”
― Asne Seierstad

“Why did you want children when you knew there was a war?’ Mustafa”
― Åsne Seierstad, One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath

“A água diz ao impuro? 'Venha cá.' / O impuro responde 'Tenho vergonha.' / A água replica: 'Como poderá se purificar dos seus pecados sem mim?”
― Asne Seierstad, Bookseller of Kabul