Khaled Hosseini: Likeness

“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.”

“Attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun.”

“Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. -Nana”

“Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

“Men are easy,' he said, fingers tapping on his mahogany desk. '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 into making you.”

“I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening… They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.”

“A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later.”

“Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end…crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis (nomads).”

“You say you felt a presence, but I only sensed an absence. A vague pain without a source. I was like a patient who cannot tell the doctor where it hurts, only that it does.”

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

“She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.”

“And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.”

“It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names.”

“A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied butby the turbulence that washes over her.”

“Look at me, Mariam.'
Reluctantly, Mariam did.
Nana said, '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.”

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

“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.”

“about clichés. Avoid them like the plague.”

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