Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty. That was a little unsettling but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed.

The impact had cut your upper lip in two, he had said, clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip.

Zindagi migzara (life goes on)

We [in The Khaled Hosseini Foundation] support and fund projects that bring jobs, healthcare, and education to women and children. In addition, we award scholarships to women pursuing higher education in Afghanistan.

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.

There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.

There isn't, even now, a great tradition of novel-writing in Afghanistan. Most of the literature is in the form of poetry.