Laila

"I am the color of spinach, the color of old things."

"Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman."

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

"I had not understood that I was sad until I was happy."

"You'll see. One day you'll wake up and realize what you've lost."

"But she knew she would have to do the same thing next week, and the week after that, for the rest of her life."

"Mariam had never been to school, so she was illiterate."

"A woman's first duty is to her husband."

"I wish I could be like that, bold and sure of myself."

"She had no choice now but to accept."

"It was a girl, Rasheed said, as though it had been Laila's fault."

"Women like Nana were not supposed to know such things."

"She wondered if this was what it meant to be a wife."

"There is no God but God."

"Suffering can't be reinvented."

"One day she would have a son, and when she did, she would have to surrender him too."

"The world does not have a place for people like us."

"War doesn't end when you lay down your weapons. It ends in here."

"I am not frightened anymore."

"She had learned to read during all the years she'd been locked away."

"A man's honor is his name."

"She did not know who she was anymore."

"Laila did not speak to him unless necessary."

"You're going to be fine, you know."

"The Taliban will never be gone. They will always come back."

"I'm not like her. I can't be."

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."

"Time has not moved on for this country."

"She felt old, worn out like furniture left in the sun."

"A woman's life is divided into before children and after."