When I was in Afghanistan in 2007, I went from village to village where refugees had returned, and they were living out in the open under tents, sometimes completely exposed to the environment. And they were homeless, which meant they would lose children in the winter to the cold and in the summers in the extreme heat. It's extremely humiliating for them to be homeless, culturally it's very shameful.

Khaled Hosseini

Categorized in : Children Winter Summer

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.

Khaled Hosseini

drs said life

Everyone is an ocean inside. Every individual walking the street. Everyone is a universe of thoughts, and insights, and feelings. But every person is crippled in his or her own way by our inability to truly present ourselves to the world.

Khaled Hosseini

ocean feelings way

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

Khaled Hosseini

wall moon sun

No matter where we're born, which countries we're raised in, what cultures we come from, there are some universal experiences we all have as children. We all kind of start the same. We want the love of our parents, companionship, friends, we want to have fun, to play, and we're all hurt the first time we learn that the world is far from perfect place - it's the start of a series of epiphanies and realizations that is what growing up is all about.

Khaled Hosseini

growing-up hurt country

They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.

Khaled Hosseini

purpose mind sometimes

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

Khaled Hosseini

may sometimes life

But time, it is like charm. You never have as much as you think.

Khaled Hosseini

charm thinking

J’aurais dû être plus gentille—I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that.

Khaled Hosseini

regret should-have thinking

The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.

Khaled Hosseini

weed flower spring

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

Khaled Hosseini

honesty mean thinking

Nothing good came free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.

Khaled Hosseini

poor suffering love-you

It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.

Khaled Hosseini

funny-things people thinking

In many parts of the world, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. But I think we need women to solve the problems that men create.

Khaled Hosseini

men world thinking

For you, a thousand times over

Khaled Hosseini

circularity slingshots love

A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you.

Khaled Hosseini

mother heart men

It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting. - Amir

Khaled Hosseini

spring snow bird

A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.

Khaled Hosseini

suffering doe men

What good is regret? It brings back nothing. What we have lost is irretrievable.

Khaled Hosseini

regret lost

Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.

Khaled Hosseini

amir buttons silence

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.

Khaled Hosseini

pain gathering night