“I did not want to come in second to Malka-e-Noor again as I had in March. Then she had beaten me by not just one or two marks, the usual difference between us, but by five marks!”

“The night before exams I stayed up studying until 3 o’clock in the morning and reread an entire textbook.”

“Dear God, I know you see everything, but there are so many things that maybe, sometimes, things get missed, particularly now with the bombing in Afghanistan. But I don’t think you would be happy if you saw the children on my road living on a rubbish dump. God, give me strength and courage and make me perfect because I want to make this world perfect. - Malala”

“I don’t know why, but hearing I was targeted did not worry me. It seemed to me that everyone know they will die someday. My feeling was that nobody could stop death; it doesn’t matter whether it comes from a Talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do.”

“We believed school would start again - the Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking.“

“Nowhere is it written in the Qu’ran that a woman should be dependant on a man. The word has not come down from the heavens to tell us that every woman should listen to a man.”

“Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country- this is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world.”