I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.

You have these crops of poppies that supply something like 90% of the heroin sold in Europe and actually represents more than half of the Afghanistan's GDP.

the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion

[Flying kite with my friends] is one of the seminal memories of growing up for me.

Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.

I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person's heart