In Afghan society, parents play a central role in the lives of their children; the parent-child relationship is fundamental to who you are and what you become and how you perceive yourself, and it is laden with contradictions, with tension, with anger, with love, with loathing, with angst.

It so happens that the major relationships in the novel [The Kite Runner] are between men, dictated not by any sort of prejudice or discomfort with female characters, but rather by the demands of the narrative.

She was an extraordinary woman, and I went to bed that night feeling like I was perhaps more than ordinary myself. This was the effect she had on me.

As far as I know, he never asked where she had been or why she had left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling.

yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways and move them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with startling heroism

And one more thing...You will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab.

The bewildering success of my books continues to surprise me.