And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

Perhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone.

Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life.

In 2004, I took a one year sabbatical to finish my second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. At the end of that year, I was not done with my book, and had to in effect resign from work. I did. I never went back.

At last, she makes her choice. She turns around, drops her head, and walks toward a horizon she cannot see. After that, she does not look back anymore. She knows that if she does, she will weaken.

cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same colour.

There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it.