If there was a God, he'd guide the winds, let them blow for me so that, with a tug of my string, I'd cut lose my pain, my longing.

— Khaled Hosseini

... I have dreams of you too, Mariam Jo. I miss you. Furthermore, I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. Furthermore, 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 Heart. I regret that I did not open the door and take you in. Furthermore, 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...

— Khaled Hosseini

I know that in the end, God will forgive me. He will forgive your father, me, and you too. I hope you can do the same. Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But most important, forgive yourself.

— Khaled Hosseini

‎I know you're still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now. 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.

— Khaled Hosseini

I learned that the world didn't see the inside of you, that it did not care a whit about the hopes and reams, and sorrows, that lay masked by skin and bone. It was as simple, as absurd, and as cruel as that.

— Khaled Hosseini

I'll put it on my table where I keep my drawings," Hassan said. His saying that made me kind of sad. Sad for who Hassan was, where he lived. For how he'd accepted the fact that he'd grow old in that mud shack in the yard, the way his father had.

— Khaled Hosseini

I looked westward and marveled that, somewhere over those mountains, Kabul still existed. It really existed, not just as an old memory, or as the heading of an AP story on page 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

— Khaled Hosseini

I loved him at that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, a thief. And I would have told, except that a part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over with soon. Baba would dismiss them, there would be some pain, but life would move on. I wanted that, to move on, to forget, to start with a clean slate. I wanted to be able to breathe again.

— Khaled Hosseini

I’m all you have in this world Mariam, and when I’m gone you’ll have nothing. You ARE nothing!

— Khaled Hosseini

I'm a pretty uncomplicated person. I live a very simple life with my family and I enjoy very ordinary things.

— Khaled Hosseini