Quotes from Khaled Hosseini

A veces pienso que todo lo que hizo, dar de comer a los pobres de la calle, construir el orfanato, dejar dinero a los amigos necesitados..., era su forma de redimirse. Y en eso, creo, consiste la auténtica redención, Amir jan: en el sentimiento de culpa que desemboca en la bondad.

Nothing like life, it questions with either no answers or messy ones.

En cuanto a mí, es hora de marcharme. Me queda poco tiempo y deseo pasarlo solo. No me busques, por favor. Es lo último que te pido.

Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman.

That night, it was blessing enough to be beside him. It was blessing enough to know that he was here, to feel the warmth of him next to her, to lie with him, their heads touching, his right hand laced in her left.

Forse non è giusto, ma ciò che succede in pochi giorni, a volte in un solo giorno, può cambiare un'intera vita, Amir.

El tono tierno y casi asustado de esas palabras me hizo comprender que mi padre era una persona herida, que su amor por mí era tan auténtico, tan vasto y permanente como el cielo, y que siempre pesaría sobre mis hombros. Era la clase de amor que, tarde o temprano, te acorrala y te obliga a tomar una decisión: la de liberarte o la de quedarte y soportar su rigor, aunque te oprima hasta el punto de reducirte a alguien más pequeño de como eres en realidad.

Rubble and beggars. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw.

I miss Father, and Mother too, he croaked. And I miss Sasa and Rahim Khan sahib. But sometimes I'm glad they're not ... they're not here anymore. Why? I touched his arm. He drew back. Because-- he said, gasping and hitching between sobs, because I don't want them to see me... I'm so dirty. He sucked in his breath and let it out in a long, wheezy cry. I'm so dirty and full of sin.

Kesopanan tidak hilang gara-gara perang. Dalam masa perang, kesopanan dibutuhkan, lebih daripada dalam masa damai.

It would be an existence rife with difficulties... but of a pleasurable kind, difficulties they could take pride in, possess, value, as one would a family heirloom.

Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.

Ada jalan untuk kembali menuju kebaikan.

then. You want a story and I will tell you one. But just the one. Don't either of you ask me for more.

Of all the daughters I could have had, why did God give me an ungrateful one like you? Everything I endured for you! How dare you! How dare you abandon me like this, you treacherous little harami!

Aku tidak ingat lagi dari mana kenangan itu berasal, baik bulan maupun tahunnya. Yang kutahu, kenangan itu tersimpan dalam jiwaku, indahnya serpihan masa lalu yang terbungkus rapi, sapuan warna cerah di atas kanvas kelabu kosong yang menyelimuti kehidupan kami.

They say no such things," his wife replied. "No one thinks you are a coward." "I can hear them," he said. "It is your own voice you are hearing, husband," she said.

Ahesta boro, Mah-e-man, ahesta boro.

I tried to conjure Ali's frozen face, to REALLY see his tranquil eyes, but time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals all the details for itself.

me brinda cierto consuelo la idea de un patrón, de un esbozo de mi vida que va cobrando forma, como una fotografía en un cuarto oscuro, una historia que se va desvelando poco a poco y viene a confirmar todo lo bueno que siempre he deseado ver en mí mismo. Ese relato me sostiene.

You're afraid, Nana, she might have said. You're afraid that I might find the happiness you never had. And you don't want me to be happy. You don't want a good life for me. You're the one with the wretched heart.

The wars had made fathers a rare commodity in Afghanistan.

Part of me thinks it is better to go on as we have, to act as though we don't know how ill suited we have been for each other. Less painful that way. Perhaps better than this belated offering. This fragile, trembling little glimpse of how it could have been between us. All it will beget is regret, I tell myself, and what good is regret? It brings back nothing. What we have lost is irretrievable.

glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails, soaring in the sky. They danced high above the trees on the west end of the park, over the windmills, floating side by side like a pair of eyes looking down on San Francisco, the city I now call home.