Quotes from Khaled Hosseini

What I have in ample supply here is children who've lost their childhood. But the tragedy is that these are the lucky ones.

Mariam saw now the sacrifices a mother made. Decency was but one...Mariam wished she's been a better daughter to Nana. She wished she's understood then what she understood now about motherhood.

there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is variation of theft.

I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far.

with a thug of a string, i'd cut loose my pain, my longing...

could unsheathe from her arsenal a mockingly grave way of talking about things she found either portentous or frivolous. She could shrink your aspirations before your very eyes.

There is only one sin, only one. 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.

I would have told them that he lived a life lacking in purpose or direction. Like those aimless rides I took him on. A life lived from the backseat, observed as it blurred by. An indifferent life.

14- Just as he didn't understand why a wave of something, something like the tail end of a sad dream, always swept through him whenever he heard the jingling, surprising him each time like an unexpected gust of wind. But then it passes, as all things do, it passed

I laughed. Clutched him in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. What was that for? he said; startled, blushing. I gave him a friendly hug, smiled. You're a prince, Hassan. You're a prince and I love you.

Love is a damaging mistake, and it's accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

If I've learned anything in Kabul, it is that human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.

There is only one sin, only one, 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 of a husband, you rob his children of a father. When you lie you steal someone's right to truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no more wretched act than stealing. A man who takes what is not his to take, be it life or a loaf of naan, I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him.

Sorrow ought to be private, she thinks, not flaunted.

I pray the sea knows this. Inshallah.

He was also one of those boys so bursting with energy that he drained others of theirs.

James Parkinson. George Huntington. Robert Graves. John Down. Now this Lou Gehrig fellow of mine. How did men come to monopolize disease names too?" I blink and my mother blinks back, and then she is laughing and so am I. Even as I crumple inside.

Titanic city was born. It's the song, they said. No, the sea, the luxury, the ship. It's the sex, they whispered. Leo, said Aziza sheepishly. It's all about Leo. Everybody wants Jack, Laila said to Mariam. That's what it is. Everybody wants Jack to rescue them from disaster.

And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.

Kalau kau membunuh seorang pria kau mencuri kehidupannya. Kau mencuri seorang suami dari istrinya, merampok seorang ayah dari anak-anaknya. Kalau kau menipu, kau mencuri hak seseorang untuk mendapatkan kebenaran. Kalau kau berbuat curang, kau mencuri hak seseorang untuk mendapatkan keadilan.

I looked westward and marveled that, somewhere over those mountains, Kabul still existed. It really existed, not just as an old memory, or as the heading of an AP story on page 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Laila came to believe that of all the hardships a person had to face none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.

But they were wasting their time. Because Hassan stood with his arms wide open, smiling, waiting for the kite. And may God—if He exists, that is—strike me blind if the kite didn't just drop into his outstretched arms.

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir