Quotessence
Home / Authors / Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllAfghanistanPeopleIfsKitesStoriesThinkingKnowsWarWayWriting

Famous Khaled Hosseini Quotes

“How little those things matter to me after all the loss, all the terrible things I have seen in this cursed war. But now, of course, it is too late. Perhaps this is a just punishment for those whohave been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone. Now all I can say that you were a good daughter, Miriam jo., and that I never deserved you. Now all I can do is ask for your forgiveness. So forgive me, Miriam jo. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.”

DeathLossRegretForgivenessFatherhood
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“Mammy was soon asleep, leaving Laila with dueling emotions: reassured that Mammy meant to live on, stung that she was not the reason. 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.”

BeautifulHeartwrenching
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“When Aziza first spotted Mariam in the morning, her eyes always sprang open, and she began mewling and squirming in her mother's grip. She thrust her arms toward Mariam, demanding to be held, her tiny hands opening and closing urgently, on her face a look of both adoration and quivering anxiety... "Why have you pinned your little heart to an old, ugly hag like me?" Mariam would murmur into Aziza's hair... "What have I got to give you?" But Aziza only muttered contentedly and dug her face in deeper. And when she did that, Mariam swooned. Her eyes watered. Her heart took flight. And she marveled at how, after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections.”

LoveChildrenInnocence
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“... I have dreams of you too, Mariam jo. I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. I miss reading to you, and all those times we fished together. Do you remember all those times we fished together? You were a good daughter, Mariam jo, and I cannot ever think of you without feeling shame and regret. Regret… When it comes to you, Mariam jo, I have oceans of it. I regret that I did not see you the day you came to Herat. I regret that I did not open the door and take you in. I regret that I did not make you a daughter to me, that I let you live in that place for all those years. And for what? Fear of losing face? Of staining my so-called good name? How little those things matter to me now after all the loss, all the terrible things I have seen in this cursed war. But now, of course, it is too late. Perhaps that is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone. Now all I can do is say that you were a good daughter, Mariam jo, and that I never deserved you. Now all I can do is ask for your forgiveness. So forgive me, Mariam jo. Forgive me, forgive me. Forgive me...”

RegretForgivenessValues In Life
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“He supposes he should be relieved. But part of him wishes for something else. Perhaps if she had grimaced at him, said something infantile, full of loathing and hate. An eruption of rancor. Perhaps that might have been better. Instead, a clean, diplomatic dismissal. And this note. Don't worry. You're not in it. An act of kindness. Perhaps, more accurately, an act of charity. He should be relieved. But it hurts. He feels the blow of it, like an ax to the head.”

RegretGuilt
Book:And the Mountains Echoed
Create image

“Though there had been moments of beauty in it Mariam knew that life for most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it. She wished she could see Laila again, wished to hear the clangor of her laugh, to sit with her once more for a pot of chai and leftover halwa under a starlit sky. She mourned that she would never see Aziza grow up, would not see the beautiful young woman that she would one day become, would not get to paint her hands with henna and toss noqul candy at her wedding. She would never play with Aziza's children. She would have liked that very much , to be old and play with Aziza's children. Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad , Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.”

LifeDeathLeaving
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“In a few years, this little girl will be a woman who will make small demands on life, who will never burden others, who will never let on that she too has sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in the riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her. Already Laila sees something behind this young girl's eyes, something deep in her core, that neither Rasheed nor the Taliban will be able to break. Something as hard and unyeilding as a block of limestone. Something that in the end, will be her undoing and Laila's salvation.”

PurposeSacrificeFeminismSisterhoodStrong Will
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“In a few years, this little girl will be a woman who will make small demands on life, who will never burden others, who will never let on that she too has sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in the riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her. Already Laila sees something behind this young girl's eyes, something deep in her core, that neither Rasheed nor the Taliban will be able to break. Something as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone. Something that in the end, will be her undoing and Laila's salvation.”

PurposeSacrificeFeminismSisterhoodStrong Will
Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns
Create image

“I want to scream again, and I remember that last time I felt this way, riding with Baba in the tank of the fuel truck, buried in the dark with other refugees. I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my leg blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away. There will be no other reality tonight.”

TalibanAfghanistan WarKhaled HosseiniKite Runner
Book:The Kite Runner
Create image