In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things.

When you have lived as long as I have, the div replied, you find that cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same color.

I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.

If culture was a house, then language was the key to the front door, [and] to all rooms inside.

If thou art indeed my father, then hast thou stained thy sword in the life-blood of thy son. And thous didst it of thine obstinacy. For I sought to turn thee unto love, and I implored of thee thy name, for I thought to behold in thee the tokens recounted of my mother. But I appealed unto thy heart in vain, and now is the time gone for meeting.

It's hard when you make a film from a book that so many people love, because there's no way to get the entire story into a two-hour movie. But I was pleased with the reaction [for Kite Runner].

If you were the poor, suffering was your currency.