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.

Writing for me is largely about rewriting.

There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it.

The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.

If you were the poor, suffering was your currency.

At the time we are focusing our efforts primarily on building shelters for refugees. Homelessness in Afghanistan is a huge problem.

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