If the destination is heaven, why do we scramble to be first in line for hell?
Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.
it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.
Everyone is an ocean inside. Every individual walking the street. Everyone is a universe of thoughts, and insights, and feelings. But every person is crippled in his or her own way by our inability to truly present ourselves to the world.
It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.
You are never alone in Afghanistan. You are always in the company of others, usually family. You don't understand yourself really as an individual, you understand yourself as part of something bigger than yourself. Family is so central to your identity, to how you make sense of your world, it is very dramatic, and therefore an amazing source of storytelling, a source of fiction for me.
There is something in me that makes me see things through.
Long ago in China, knot-makers tied string into buttons and frogs, and rope into bell pulls. There was one knot so complicated that it blinded the knot-maker. Finally an emperor outlawed this cruel knot, and the nobles could not order it anymore. If I had lived in China, I would have been an outlaw knot-maker.
I think that it's really important to go away and come back.
Music never goes away. It is always available, but we're not always available for music.