I loved this story so much more than I thought I would. I put off reading this because I assumed I would be bored by the unfamiliar culture and traditions. But, honestly this is just a well written and interesting story that just so happens to mention and explain Afghanistan culture. I found myself addicted to this story and I was disappointed on days I couldn't find time to continue it. I've had a few friends tell me that A Thousand Splendid Suns is better so I'm so excited to read that story soon cuz I loved this one so much.
"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."
"There is a way to be good again."
"The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little."
"There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."
"Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them in with your favorite colors."
"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything."
"Didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?"
"To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people who mean every word they say."
"That's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too."
"Coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... Winners won and everyone else just went home."
"Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."
"He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him."
"How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head? I was the one who went to school, the one who could read, write. I was the smart one. Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty. That was a little unsettling, but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed."
"It was [her] and me against the world. And I'll tell you this: In the end, the world always wins."
"There is no shame in war."
"Sad stories make good books."
"I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with."
"Every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her."
"A big part of the reason I didn't care about [her] past was that I had one of my own. I knew all about regret."
"It wasn't meant to be. Or, maybe, it was meant not to be."
"Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals all the details for itself."
"I knew it was better to be miserable than rude."
"How seamless love seemed and then came trouble." - Hafez
"The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts."
"What was the old saying about the bad penny? My past was like that, always turning up."
"A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer."
"I believe true redemption is when guilt leads to good."
"Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons."
"Lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty."
"Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis."
"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare if epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."
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