Quotes from Khaled Hosseini

Not that they give a damn in America, mind you. What do they care that Pashtuns and Hazaras and Tajiks and Uzbeks are killing each other? How many Americans can even tell one from the other? Don't expect help from them, I say. Now that the Soviets have collapsed, we're no use to them. We served our purpose. To them, Afghanistan is a kenarab, a shit hole. Excuse my language, but it's true.

Love is a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.

In the mirror, Mariam had her first glimpse of Rasheed: the big, square, ruddy face; the crooked nose; the flushed cheeks that gave the impression of sly cheerfulness; the watery, bloodshot eyes; the crowded teeth, the front two pushed together like a gables roof; the impossible low hairline, barely two fingers widths above the bushy eyebrows; the wall of thick, coarse, salt-and-pepper hair. Their gazes met briefly in the glass and slid away. This is the face of my husband, Mariam thought.

Blood is a powerful thing, bachem, never forget that.

That's the real Afghanistan, Agha sahib. That's the Afghanistan I know. You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it

She said this in a pragmatic, almost indifferent, tone, and Mariam understood that this was a woman far past outrage. Here was a woman, she thought, who had understood that she was lucky to even be working, that there was always something, something else, that they could take away.

marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief.

Masalahku adalah selalu ada seseorang yang berjuang untukku.

Tapi lebih baik disakiti oleh kenyataan daripada dinyamankan oleh kebohongan.

You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that.

There is only one sin. and that is theft.. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life... you steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness... there is no act more wretched than stealing.

The moment is brief, barely enough for a flutter of the pulse but long enough for her illusory self to catch up with the reality of the woman gazing back from the shopwindow. It is a little devastating. This is what aging is, she thinks as she follows Isabelle into the store, these random unkind moments that catch you when you least expect them.

Tentu saja, tak ada yang gratis di dunia ini, tapi maafku berharga murah.

Bagi para pengejar layang-layang, hadiah yang paling berharga adalah layang-layang yang terjatuh paling akhir dalam sebuah turnamen musim dingin. Itulah trofi kehormatan yang diperebutkan, sesuatu yang bisa dipajang untuk dikagumi para tamu.

May God grant you a long and prosperous life, my daughter. May God give you many healthy and beautiful children. May you find the happiness, peace, and acceptance that I did not give you. Be well. I leave you in the loving hands of God. Your undeserving father, Jalil

prayers, Laila knows, are Aziza's way of clinging to Mariam

Untuk kesabaran dan pengertianmu, aku akan selalu mencintaimu.

When Laila saw the article, she'd thought of her childhood friends Giti and Hasina, and Hasina saying, By the time we're twenty, Giti and I, we'll have pushed out four, five kids each. But you, Laila, you'll make us two dummies proud. You're going to be somebody. I know one day I'll pick up a newspaper and find your picture on the front page.

I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old ah, I wish I was not good to that person.

Por ti lo haría mil veces más.

will forget once again about Afghanistan. The lines are from his favorite of Hafez's ghazals: Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not, Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not. If a flood should arrive, to drown all that's alive, Noah is your guide in the typhoon's eye, grieve not.

Tell her she is the noor of my eyes and the sultan of my heart.

I forgive you." Forgive? But theft was the one unforgivable sin, the common denominator of all sins. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing.

ella. Pari es sangre de mi sangre. Y no tardaré en conocer a sus hijos y a los hijos de sus hijos, y mi sangre circula también en las venas de todos ellos. No estoy sola.