Amir

"I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid December day in 1975."

"When you kill for the first time, you lose your innocence."

"Theft and lying were part of their world."

"I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom."

"The Winter of 1975 was when Hassan stopped smiling."

"Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba's love."

"I realized the problem, of course: I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara."

"I became what I am today at the age of twelve."

"Assef was a sociopath in the making."

"The winter of 1975 was when everything changed."

"I had one last chance to make things right."

"Kabul had become a place of ghosts."

"I envied him. Envied the way Hassan loved."

"Maybe my suspicions about Baba's love for me had been unfounded."

"The winter of 1975 was the winter of our betrayal."

"Kabul in those days was beautiful."

"I was afraid of Assef and what he might do."

"That was a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday."

"I looked at the round face in the mirror and hardly recognized myself."

"Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different worlds."

"I remembered Baba saying that theft was the only sin."

"The taste of betrayal was still on my tongue."

"In the end, I was a coward."

"America was a place to start over."

"Sohrab was all that was left of Hassan."

"I owed Hassan more than redemption."

"The scar on Sohrab's lip was a reminder of what I had done."

"Baba had his own sins to atone for."

"I would be Sohrab's father now."

"The kite runner was calling me home."