Khaled Hosseini

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.

I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty

Laila has moved on. Because in the end she knows that’s all she can do. That and hope.

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...

"Tariq tucked the gun into the waist of his denims. Then he said a thing both lovely and terrible. "For you," he said. "I'd kill with it for you, Laila.

"War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace." - Baba

She said, 'I'm so afraid.' And I said, 'why?,' and she said, 'Because I'm so profoundly happy, Dr. Rasul. Happiness like this is frightening.' I asked her why and she said, 'They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.

كما إبرة البوصلة تشير إلى الشمال ،، فإن أصبع الرجل يجد دائماً امرأة ليتهمها ،، تذكري ذلك يا مريم !!

In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things.

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

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

Zindagi migzara (life goes on)

Human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

"You changed the subject."
"From what?"
"The empty-headed girls who think you're sexy."
"You know."
"Know what?"
"That I only have eyes for you."