“I’ll never forget when they played the Afghan national anthem… we we were all crying.”

“Instead of getting buried, in the ground the rubbish gets reused and new things are made.”

“If they ask for my license I tell them ‘what license? My beard is my license.”

“Chips Burgers were originally made by Afghans. We prefer them because they are healthier.”

“When I first went to Bamiyan when there were no paper guides, and no two-legged ones either!”

“The world has become such a small place and we all really need each other.”

“This is a place where you start life again. It’s maybe a painful place, but it is a place of hope.”

“I pray that every parent will give their daughters the freedom of learning.”

“History has shown that civilisation will grow where there is security.”

“Our tagline is ‘Tourism not Terrorism’. We promote peace through tourism.”

“Afghan people are scared to eat different foods. But once they try they are happy and they love it.”

“In the old days music was heard by the ears, now music is seen by the eyes.”

“The Taliban targeted colleagues, our vehicles have been shot at, and our offices burned down.”

“When I see my friends being martyred, I feel I should become a martyr too.”

“Women are much better drivers than men…they can be so blind sometimes.”

“There is a very tight timeline to recover what can be found.”

“After a suicide attack, we have to cover these incidents. There’s no option.”

“Some sources say that meditation originated in Afghanistan long before Buddhism.”

“If mankind didn’t exist, all the living creatures would live very well.”

“Creating a culture is hard work… You cannot do this through force.”

“My friends’ little daughters even ask to come to Finest to have fun.”

“This last winter was very cold. Sometimes I can’t feel my hands or feet.”

“My mother said I used to sleep outside gazing up at the sky”

“Whenever I see the teeth of the audience that is the best feeling for me.”

“My friends tease me that I am too thin for a chef.”

“If the truck drivers are Pakistani they normally get the blame. Not many of us like Pakistanis.”

“They have threatened to kidnap my people, blow up my sites but we never paid bribes.”

“We had an average of 40 cases a day, but sometimes it was up to 300.”

“We can talk to the Taliban, we Shiites have no problem with that.”

“I have always wanted to serve Islam by using my beautiful art.”

“I don’t want to do anything else, wherever I am I will always be a woodcarver.”

“I see more women becoming like me and feeling that they have the power to do something.”

“Once you’ve chosen a field there should be only one goal – serve the people.”

“I think it is one of the architectural wonders of our time.”

“My job is to mess around with the chefs and scream and make a lot of noise.”

“I am not afraid of anything when I have my people supporting me.”

“I dreamt that one day I’d like to deliver letters to loved ones and make them happy.”

“I am not an artist yet. Artists are great people aren’t they? I am only taking the first steps.”

“You know, when you go to work in the morning, you go with a bad feeling.”

“I stand in front of the gate watching them take bread to their families, it makes me very happy”

“if you touched a green leaf in a blacksmiths’ you would be burnt!”

“When I held the sheep’s neck and ran the knife over it, I did it with interest and delight.”

“Kabul was once a beautiful city with traditional buildings. Now we are overrun with architecture imported from Pakistan.”

“The bird song reminds me of the happy times I spent in the mountains fighting the Russians.”

“I think people respect me but I don’t know. People in this country need more than just government.”

“I make all sorts of things out of old tyres; sandals, buckets, saddlebags…You name it.”

“They came in the middle of the night to warn me that the Taliban would burn my car.”

“there are so many cars on the road these days…no one seems to know how to drive properly.”

“Afghanistan has been frozen in time… only now people can think about furthering themselves.”

It’s amazing to see girls coming here. I overheard them saying ‘I can’t believe we’re in Afghanistan’

“If business continues to grow, then Kabul will be very beautiful and very safe.”

“Visitors had only the museum’s ruins to gaze at. We saw its destruction, but we did not lose hope.”

“My company has been robbed and the equipment stolen many times. But we never stopped.”

“Whenever I come back to Kabul, it feels like I am coming home.”

“You see young men losing their lives in these attacks and you think, what gives me the right to survive?”

“They say that if you save one person’s life, you save the life of the whole world”

“Knowledge is more important than money but only Allah knows the real future.”

“It is the money that is important, not the birds”

“You got real heavy metal here.. You got these bullets that are metal …and they are heavy.”

“When I was child I used to sleep on the roof watching the tracers from the bullets. It was exciting, like watching a celebration party.”

“The horse put its legs on my abdomen and I thought it was going to kill me.”

“an aggressive face intimidates your opponent…But really I’m kind at heart.”

“The sound of titanic is like a dick in my brain!”

“Life under the Taliban was much better then, there were no Snickers bars!”

“Painters are lucky… we can paint peoples’ dreams.”

“I am the war profiteer who saves lives. If there was no war I wouldn’t be here.”

“One day I’d like to be a politician actor like Arnie.”

“We want to show the world that this is Afghanistan. A strong, peaceful Afghanistan.”

“In 2002, after the Taliban regime, the first woman to leave the house was me.”

“It’s not really like choosing clothes. It’s just a kind of covering.”

“Practice is the mother of knowledge, I know more than those who have studied banking.”

“I’ve been practicing for 77 years without any complaints so far.”

“There was a bomb explosion and I was just metres away from it. I was really scared!”

“I was invited to Dubai and I saw Tiger Woods, which made me very happy. I like people who like golf.”

“I once offended Mullah Omar during the time of the Taliban after I told him a joke about being blind.”