Human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.

And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.

But if you have a book that needs urgent reading,' she said, 'then Hakim is your man.

That's how children deal with terror, they fall asleep.

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

The experience of writing 'The Kite Runner' is one I will always think back on with fondness. There is an energy, a romance in writing the first novel that can never be duplicated again.

The [George W.] Bush administration tripled its aid package to Afghanistan. [Hamid] Karzai finally (and courageously) announced that warlords will be forbidden from holding office in the future government. And finally, NATO agreed to expand the peacekeeping forces to troubled areas outside of Kabul.