"Maybe it was senseless to want to be near a person so badly here in a country where bullets had shredded her own brothers to pieces. But all Laila had to do was picture Tariq going at Khadim with his leg and then nothing in the world seemed more sensible to her."

"And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing."

"It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid."

"Mariam is never very far, she is here, in these walls they've repainted, in the trees they've planted, in the blankets that keep the children warm, in these pillows and books and pencils. She is in the children's laughter. She is in the verses Aziza recites and in the prayers she mutters when she bows westward. But, mostly, Miriam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns."

"Tariq: For you, Laila, I'd go all over the world"

"Mariam: No, it is fair. I killed our husband, Laila. I deprived your son of a father. Even if we escape, I...I won't be able to look at him without shame. No, it's my fault. Take care, Laila jo."

"Laila: It isn't fair."

"Mullah Faizullah: It wasn't your fault,Mariam. Don't think this way. This will destroy you, my girl. It wasn't your fault."

"Tariq (meeting Laila after ten years): It's good to see you, Laila."

"Hasina: That's because you have a beard, my dear."

"Giti: Nobody ever came for my hand."

"Tariq: They think its sexy"

"Laila: What girls?"

"Tariq: I do it for the girls"

"Laila: Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees."

"Tariq: Who's going to tell her? You?"

"Laila: That could change"

"Tariq: She doesn't know"

"Laila (at fourteen years): What would your mother say when she saw you smoke?"

"Nana (to Mariam) : A man's heart isn't like a woman's womb, Mariam! It won't bleed, it won't make room for you. A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. I'm all you have in this world, Mariam and when I'm gone, you'll have nothing. You are nothing!"

"Nana (to Mariam): When I'm gone, you'll have nothing in this world. You are nothing!"

"Laila: A jeep? Maybe a jumbo jet?"

"Mariam: I can't believe what you are now, if you were a Benz before."

"And I wrote to you, Laila. Volumes. -"

"Jalil: I think you look like a queen."

"Mariam: What do you think?"

"Jalil: try it on, Mariam jo."

"(a gold pendent with stars and moons hanging from it)"

"Jailil: Ah yes. Of course. Well then, without further ado..."

"Mariam is having a flashback*"

"Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before."

"Regret...when it comes to you, I have oceans of it."

"I dream of you too, Mariam jo. I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. I miss reading to you, and all the times we fished together. Do you remember all the times we fished together? You were a good daughter, Mariam jo, and I cannot ever think of you without feeling shame and regret. -Jalil's letter"

"What good is it? All this, what good is it? -Mariam"

"I know you're still young, but I want you to understand and learn this now, he said. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila No chance. -Babi"

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

"And so it was that, about a week later, we crossed a strip of warm, black tarmac and I brought Hassan's son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty."

"A man who who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer."

"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything."

"We're a melancholic people, we Afghans, aren't we? Often, we wallow too much in ghamkhori and self-pity. We give in to loss, to suffering, accept it as a fact of life, even see it as necessary. Zendagi migzara, we say, life goes on. But I am not surrendering to fate here, I am being pragmatic. I have seen several good doctors here and they have given the same answer. I trust them and believe them. There is such a thing as God's will."

"Their sons go out to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no one says a goddamn thing. Oh, they're just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang and namoos, and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life."

"Up to that point, our encounter could have been interpreted as a respectful inquiry, one man asking for the whereabouts of another man. But I'd asked her a question and if she answered, we'd be... well, we'd be chatting. Me a mojarad, a single young man, and she an unwed young woman. One with a history, no less. This was teetering dangerously on the verge of gossip material, and the best kind of it. Poison tongues would flap. And she would bear the brunt of that poison, not me — I was fully aware of the Afghan double standard that favored my gender. Not Did you see him chatting with her? but Wooooy! Did you see how she wouldn't let him go? What a lochak!"

"But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

"I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn't I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have turned out a little more like him."

"Hassan's not going anywhere. He's staying right here with us, where he belongs. This is his home and we're his family. Don't you ever ask me that question again!"

"Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood."

"Is this about you and Hassan? I know there's something going on between you two, but whatever it is, you have to deal with it, not me. I'm staying out of it."

"I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn't care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran."

"For you, a thousand times over."