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Khaled Hosseini Quotes
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Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American novelist and physician. After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, a predicament that he likened to "an arranged marriage." He has published three novels, most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and feature an Afghan as the protagonist. Following the success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to write full-time.

Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father worked as a diplomat, and when Hosseini was 11 years old, the family moved to France; four years later, they applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2001 at the age of 36, where he "felt like a tourist in [his] own country". In interviews about the experience, he admitted to sometimes feeling survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country before the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars.

All three of his novels became bestsellers: The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, four of them at number one. A Thousand Splendid Suns was a Times Best Seller for 103 weeks, 15 at number one. And the Mountains Echoed debuted near the top of the Times list and remained on it for 33 weeks until January 2014. Wikipedia  

✵ 4. March 1965
Khaled Hosseini photo
Khaled Hosseini: 226 quotes34 likes

Khaled Hosseini Quotes

“But even when he wasn't around, he was.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

“She was my mother and she would not leave me. This I had simply accepted and expected. I had no more thanked her for it than i did the sun for shining on me.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“How seamless seemed love and then came trouble!”

Khaled Hosseini

“It was madness. Sheer lunacy. A spectacularly foolish and baseless faith, against enormous odds, that a world you do not control will not take from you the one thing you cannot bear to lose. Faith that the world will not destroy you.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“People in the countryside carry a sense of dignity. They wear it, don't they? Like a badge? I'm being genuine.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“A man's plumbing is like his mind: simple, very few surprises. You ladies, on the other hand… well, God put a lot of thought in making you.”

Khaled Hosseini

“No one snaps our composure quite like someone we love.”

Khaled Hosseini

“Tariq: Who's going to tell her? You?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Tariq: For you, Laila, I'd go all over the world”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“I stepped back and all I saw was rain through windowpanes that looked like melting silver.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

109
The Kite Runner (2003)

“But that's what I'm saying to you… That there are bad people in this world, and sometimes bad people stay bad. Sometimes you have to stand up to them.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

(319) Amir
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Tariq (meeting Laila after ten years): It's good to see you, Laila.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Hasina: That's because you have a beard, my dear.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“How could I of all people, chastise someone for their past?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Amir
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Mariam is never very far, she is here, in these walls they've repainted, in the trees they've planted, in the blankets that keep the children warm, in these pillows and books and pencils. She is in the children's laughter. She is in the verses Aziza recites and in the prayers she mutters when she bows westward. But, mostly, Miriam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), Chapter, 51.

“You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is.. God help him.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

(288) Amir
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Hassan slumps to the asphalt, his life of unrequited loyalty drifting from him like the windblown kites he used to chase.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2003)

“Mariam: I can't beleive what you are now, if you were a Benz before.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“It does not frighten me to leave this life that my only son left five years ago, this life that insists we bear sorrow upon sorrow long after we can bear no more. No, I believe I shall gladly take my leave when the time comes. What frightens me, hamshira, is the day God summons me before him and asks, Why did you not do as I said, Mullah? Why did you not obey my laws? How shall I explain myself to him, hamshira? What will be my defense for not heeding His commands? All I can do, all any of us can do, in the time we are granted, is to go on abiding by the laws He has set for us. The clearer I see my end, hamsira, the nearer I am to my day of reckoning, the more determined I grow to carry out His word. However painful it may prove.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Talib Judge, p. 366
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mariam, p. 98
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn't I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Amir (19)
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Giti: Nobody ever came for my hand.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“But coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? … He had won because winners won and everyone else just went home.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

56
The Kite Runner (2003)

“I know you're still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now, he said. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila No chance. -Babi”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Babi
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Hassan's not going anywhere. He's staying right here with us, where he belongs. This is his home and we're his family. Don't you ever ask me that question again!”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Baba (79-80)
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Jalil: I think you look like a queen.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Mariam: What do you think?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Is this about you and Hassan? I know there's something going on between you two, but whatever it is, you have to deal with it, not me. I'm staying out of it.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Baba (79)
The Kite Runner (2003)

“Laila (at fourteen years): What would your mother say when she saw you smoke?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“I dream of you too, Mariam jo. I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. I miss reading to you, and all the times we fished together. Do you remember all the times we fished together? You were a good daughter, Mariam jo, and I cannot ever think of you without feeling shame and regret. -Jalil's letter”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Assef (35)
The Kite Runner (2003)

“A man … found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear. So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls piled up, so did his greed grow. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2003)

“I am tired and I am dying, and I want to be merciful. I want to forgive you. But when God summons me and says, But it wasn't for you to forgive, Mullah, what shall I say?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Talib Judge, p. 366
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Maybe it was senseless to want to be near a person so badly here in a country where bullets had shredded her own brothers to pieces. But all Laila had to do was picture Tariq going at Khadim with his leg and then nothing in the world seemed more sensible to her.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Laila, p. 153
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Tariq: They think its sexy”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“If America taught me anything, it's that quitting is right up there with pissing in the Girl Scouts' lemonade jar.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2003)

“Ali and Sanaubar had little in common, least of all their respective appearances. While Sanaubar’s brilliant green eyes and impish face had, rumor has it, tempted countless men into sin, Ali had a congenital paralysis of his lower facial muscles, a condition that rendered him unable to smile and left him perpetually grim-faced. It was an odd thing to see the stone-faced Ali happy, or sad, because only his slanted brown eyes glinted with a smile or welled with sorrow. People say that eyes are windows to the soul. Never was that more true than with Ali, who could only reveal himself through his eyes.I have heard that Sanaubar’s suggestive stride and oscillating hips sent men to reveries of infidelity.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003), Ch. 2

“Mullah Faizullah: It wasn't your fault, Mariam. Don't think this way. This will destroy you, my girl. It wasn't your fault.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Nana (to Mariam): When I'm gone, you'll have nothing in this world. You are nothing!”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Mariam: No, it is fair. I killed our husband, Laila. I deprived your son of a father. Even if we escape, I…I won't be able to look at him without shame. No, it's my fault. Take care, Laila jo.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Laila: A jeep? Maybe a jumbo jet?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2003)

“Tariq: She doesn't know”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Laila: What girls?”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

“Laila: It isn't fair.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)