Quotes from book

A Thousand Splendid Suns

“People…shouldn’t be allowed to have new children if they’d already given away all their love to their old ones. It wasn’t fair.”

“Perhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone.”

“You’re not going to cry, are you?
- I am not going to cry! Not over you. Not in a thousand years.”

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

“What good is it? All this, what good is it? -Mariam”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Giti: Nobody ever came for my hand.”

“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”

“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.”

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

“Mariam: What do you think?”

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

“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”