cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same colour.

these random unkind moment that catch you wen you least expect them.

The story line of my novel [The Kite Runner] is largely fictional. The characters were invented and the plot imagined.

[Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns] is not just unique to books, but films and music.

Even after The Kite Runner was published I continued to practice for another eighteen months. But I had always had a love of writing and a compulsion to do it.

For a novelist, it’s kind of an onerous burden to represent an entire culture. That said, I’m in a unique position to speak on behalf of Afghanistan on certain issues that I feel are important, particularly the issue of Afghan refugees.

I was overwhelmed with the kindness of people [in Afghanistan] and found that they had managed to retain their dignity, their pride, and their hospitality under unspeakably bleak conditions.