A Thousand Splendid Suns

"I wish you would come back to me."

"A woman is not supposed to suffer alone."

"We need each other."

"I forgive you for what you've done to me."

"Forgiveness is not something to be expected."

"I have been afraid all my life."

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me that you're happy."

"We endure because we have to."

"I do it for myself. I want to be able to read letters if Tariq sends any."

"Teach me to read."

"I have lived a life that is not mine."

"You will be a good mother."

"I am the face of your past."

"Do you know what I think happened? That the universe took a long, hard look at the suffering I endured and decided to return the favor."

"I am not a stone to be buried. I am a woman."

"Mothers are not supposed to reject their children."

"I wish to be a teacher. I wish to be a mother."

"It's a daughter. She'll bring shame on us all."

"A woman's life in this country is just a like a leave in autumn—and then it falls, and no one remembers it."

"Better to get mad. Better to get furious."

"You're going to hurt, and hurt badly. But it won't last forever."

"I've had to learn that this city, this country, has a way of grinding people down, of making them feel small and helpless."

"Suffering is what forms us."

"Adventure comes to those who seize it."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but action despite it."

"Kindness in this world will be repaid."

"There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger."

"She understood finally that love required sacrifice."

"She had learned that hope was a dangerous thing."

"She found peace in the simple act of helping another human being."