Khaled Hosseini: Trending quotes (page 8)

“In Kabul, hot running water had been like fathers, a rare commodity.”

“She would grab whatever she could -a look, a whisper, a moan - to salvage from perishing, to perserve. But time is most unforgivving of fires, and she couldn't, in the end, save it all.”

“I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills.”

“Awake. And alone with demons of my own.”

“But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you.”

“Creating means vandalizing the lives of other people, turning them into unwilling and unwitting participants. You steal their desires, their dreams, pocket their flaws, their suffering. You take what does not belong to you. You do this knowingly.”

“Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too”

“The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts. Such grace, such dignity, such a tragedy.”

“I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn't care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran.”

“Mariam always held her breath as she watched him go. She held her breath and, in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second that she didn't breathe God would grant her another day with Jalil.”

“A person who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.”

“In my experience, men who understand women seem to rarely want to have anything to do with them.”

“She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups.”

“Words were secret doorways and I held all the keys.”

“Must have been quite the culture shock, going there.”
“Yes it was.” Idris doesn’t say that the real culture shock has been in coming back.”

“you say you have no courage, but i see it in you. what you did, the burden you agreed to shoulder, took courage. for that, i honor you.”

“Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.”

“That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.”

“It's often a matter of sitting in front of the computer and worrying. It's what writing comes down to--worrying that things aren't going to work out.”