The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

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.

And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.

“When you kill a man, you steal a life,”

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. Do you see?”

“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.”

And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

“But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”

But this was my one chance to become someone who was looked at, not seen, listened to, not heard.

War doesn’t negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.”

it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.

‘How seamless seemed love and then came trouble!’”

There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.

Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.

After all, life is not a Hindi movie. Zendagi migzara, Afghans like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, kamyab, nah-kam, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis.

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.

Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.