There [in The Kite Runner] certainly are, as is always the case with fiction, autobiographical elements woven through the narrative.

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.

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

Kabul was a thriving cosmopolitan city with its vibrant artistic, intellectual and cultural life. There were poets, musicians, and writers. There was also an influx of western culture, art, and literature in the '60s and '70s.

People learned to live with the most unimaginable things.

A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.

In early 1999, I was watching TV, when I came across a story on Afghanistan. It was a story about the Taliban and the restrictions they were imposing on the Afghan people, most notably women. At some point in the story, there was a casual reference to them having banned the game of kite fighting. This detail struck a personal chord with me, as I had grown up in Kabul flying kite with my friends.