A stubborn ass needs a stubborn driver

The story line of my novel [The Kite Runner] is largely fictional. The characters were invented and the plot imagined.

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but 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. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.

Though there were moments of beauty, Mariam knew for the most part that life had been unkind to her.

I think the emancipation of women in Afghanistan has to come from inside, through Afghans themselves, gradually, over time.

My books are about ordinary people, like you, me, people on the street, people who really have an expectation of reasonable happiness in life, want their life to have a sense of security and predictability, who want to belong to something bigger than them, who want love and affection in their life, who want a good future for the children.

about clichés. Avoid them like the plague.