Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you but I don't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money."...Baba walked out of the welfare office like a man cured of a tumor.
Khaled HosseiniHassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975 โand all that followedโ was already laid in those first words.
Khaled HosseiniI feel like we [americans] are a unique nation in this world, in that we are able to implement great change in our society over a relatively short period of time. What takes centuries in Europe, we accomplish in a generation.
Khaled HosseiniThe story of what has happened to women in Afghanistan, however, is a very important one, and fertile ground for fiction.
Khaled HosseiniBut Laila has decided that she will not be crippled by resentment. Mariam wouldnโt want it that way. โWhatโs the sense?โ she would say with a smile both innocent and wise. โWhat good is it, Laila jo?โ And so Laila has resigned herself to moving on. For her own sake, for Tariqโs, for her childrenโs. And for Mariam, who still visits Laila in her dreams, who is never more than a breath or two below her consciousness. Laila has moved on. Because in the end she knows thatโs all she can do. That and hope.
Khaled Hosseini