Quotes from Khaled Hosseini

Now I was free to do as I wished, but I found the freedom illusory, for what I wished for the most had been taken from me. -Nabi

A sadness came over me. Returning to Kabul was like running into an old, forgotten friend and seeing that life hadn't been good to him, that he'd become homeless and destitute.

Ask him where his shame is. He says this is war. There is no shame in war. Tell him he's wrong. War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.

have dreams of you too, Mariam jo. I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. I miss reading to you, and all those times we fished together. Do you remember all those times we fished together? You were a good daughter

When you tell a lie, you steal a man's right to the truth.

Porque una sociedad no tiene la menor posibilidad de éxito si sus mujeres no reciben educación.

Tapi tentu saja, memang gampang menjadi pintar kalau kamu punya senjata yang siap dipakai.

And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.

My parents were reasonably affluent in Kabul. In the States, we were on welfare. My mom became a waitress, and my dad became a driving instructor. That part of the American immigrant experience applies to people of any nationality.

Usually in films, when Muslims pray, it's either before or after they've blown something up.

The jury is out as to whether the Afghans are up to the task of protecting their people.

I found a sad little fairy Beneath the shade of a paper tree. I know a sad little fairy Who was blown away by the wind one night.

I thought about you all the time. I used to pray that you'd live to be a hundred years old. I didn't know. I didn't know that you were ashamed of me.

He stopped, turned. He cupped his hands around his mouth. ''For you a thousand times over!'' he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner.

They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.

But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.

Nothing happens in a vacuum in life: every action has a series of consequences, and sometimes it takes a long time to fully understand the consequences of our actions.

There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it.

Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life.

I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.

and every day I thank [God] that I am alive, not because I fear death, but because my wife has a husband and my son is not an orphan.

By then The Kite Runner had become quite successful and I found myself in a position that I had always dreamed of my whole life, which was to write for a living.

The difficulty of writing a second novel is directly proportional to how successful the first novel was, it seems.

I'm so fascinated by how people destroy each other and love each other.