A Thousand Splendid Suns Quote ID
"Yes, but I die a hero," ... "while you, Rose, you spend your entire life longing for me."
Aziza
"Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance."
Babi
"Laila, my love, the only enemy an Afghan cannot defeat is himself."
Babi
"Marriage can wait, education cannot"
Babi
"Beans. No less than four cans. On the evening the toothless lizard comes to ask for your hand. But the timing, ladies, the timing is everything. You have to suppress the fireworks 'til it's time to serve him his tea."
Hasina
"it's your young handsome, one-legged prince who comes knocking."
Hasina
"I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice, your laughter. I miss reading to you, and all those times we fished together."
Jalil (Jalil's letter)
"May you find the happiness, peace, and acceptance that I did not give you. Be well. I leave you in the loving hands of God."
Jalil (Jalil's letter)
"Don't leave like this,"
Jalil to Mariam
"That's why our Soviet comrades came here in 1979. To lend their neighbor a hand. To help us defeat these brutes who want our country to be a backward, primitive nation. And you must lend your own hand, children. You must report anyone who might know about these rebels. It's your duty. You must listen, then report. Even if it's you parents, your uncles or aunts. Because none of them loves you as much as your country does. Your country come first, remember! I will be proud of you, and so will your country."
Khala Rangmaal
"Well...," "have I disturbed your daydreaming, Inqilabi Girl?"
Khala Rangmaal
"Boys...treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly."
Laila
"Everybody wants Jack to rescue them from disaster. But there is no Jack. Jack is not coming back. Jack is dead."
Laila
"I won't let you turn my daughter into a street beggar!"
Laila
"I'll take care of you for a change."
Laila
"The Chinese say it's better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one."
Laila
"They can't make half the population stay home and do nothing."
Laila
"And I never asked you for a thing. Not one thing. I'm asking you now."
Mariam
"And you gave him a daughter. So, you see, your sin is even less forgivable than mine."
Mariam
"Everything I'd ever wished for as a little girl you've already given me. You and your children have made me so very happy."
Mariam
"I am nobody, don't you see? A dehati. What have I got to give you?"
Mariam
"It's all I have to give her..., this knowledge, these prayers. They're the only true possession I've ever had"
Mariam
"Nobody's ever stood up for me before"
Mariam
"This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings."
Mariam
"Why have you pinned your little heart to an old, ugly hag like me?"
Mariam
"You're afraid that I might find the happiness you never had. And you don't want a good life for me. You're the one with the wretched heart"
Mariam
"I thought about you all the time. I used to pray that you'd live to be a hundred years old. I didn't know that you were ashamed of me."
Mariam to Jalil
"I used to worship you,"
Mariam to Jalil
"The Koran says Allah is in the East and the West, therefore wherever you turn there is Allah's purpose."
Mariam; but taught by Mullah Faizullah
"Behind every trial and sorrow that he makes us shoulder, God has a reason."
Mullah Faizullah
"But it is God who has planted them... And it is his will that you tend to them"
Mullah Faizullah
"God's word will never betray you my girl."
Mullah Faizullah
"God, in HIs wisdom, has given us each weaknesses, and foremost among my many is that I am powerless to refuse you, Mariam jo."
Mullah Faizullah
"If the girl wants to learn, let her, my dear. Let the girl have an education."
Mullah Faizullah
"A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed, it won't stretch to make room for you."
Nana
"Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a women."
Nana
"There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school. Only one skill. And it's this: tahamul. Endure."
Nana
"What's the sense schooling a girl like you? It's like shining a spittoon."
Nana
"When I'm gone you'll have nothing. You'll have nothing. You are nothing."
Nana
"As a matter of policy, we do not interfere with private family matters, hamshira."
Officer Rahman
"It's a matter of qanoon, hamshira, a matter of law,"
Officer Rahman
"What a man does in his home is his business."
Officer Rahman
"But I'm a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled"
Rasheed
"Have you told her, Mariam, have you told her that you are a harami?...If she were a car, she would be a Volga."
Rasheed
"I married a pari, and now I'm saddled with a hag. You're turning into Mariam."
Rasheed
"I'm giving you help around the house and her a sanctuary...I deserve a medal."
Rasheed
"Is it so insensible, by comparison, to chop the hands off a few thieves? Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. It's in the Koran."
Rasheed
"Let them come," he said. "I, for one, will shower them with rose petals."
Rasheed
"Now you know what you've given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else."
Rasheed
"That's the one thing I can't stand," he said, scowling, "the sound of a woman crying. I'm sorry. I have no patience for it."
Rasheed
"The Taliban are puppets. These are the big players and Afghanistan is their playground."
Rasheed
"They think nothing of a stranger touching their wives' bare feet! They think they're being modern men, intellectuals, on account of their education, I suppose. They don't see that they're spoiling their own nang and namoos, their honor and pride."
Rasheed
"What good are all your smarts to you now? What's keeping you off the streets, your smarts or me? I'm despicable? Half the women in this city would kill to have a husband like me. They would kill for it."
Rasheed
"Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only."
Rasheed
"You don't know what a communist is? Such a simple thing. Everyone knows. It's common knowledge. You don't...bah. I don't know why I'm surprised."
Rasheed
"You try this again and I will find you...And, when I do, there isn't a court in this godforsaken country that will hold me accountable for what I will do"
Rasheed
"On your country, to begin with."
Sayeed
"I want to see my sons' dreams come true. I want to see the day the Soviet go home disgraced, the day the Mujahideen come to Kabul in victory. I want to be there when it happens, when Afghanistan is free, so the boys see it too. They'll see it through my eyes."
Fariba
"Take your daughter and run away. Send me a postcard. But peace is coming, and I, for one, am going to wait for it."
Fariba
"That he is not...You will not liken that one-legged carpenter's boy to your brothers. There is no one like your brothers."
Fariba
"The reputation of a girl, especially one as pretty as you, is a delicate thing, Laila. Like a mynah bird in your hands. Slacken your grip and away it flies."
Fariba
"His students loved him. Not only because he wouldn't beat them with rulers, like other teachers did. They respected him, you see, because he respected them. He was marvelous."
Fariba about Babi
"You're a good daughter," "And I haven't been much of a mother to you."
Fariba to Laila
"I'm too young to have a suitor!"
Giti
"You shouldn't talk that way about people!" ... "People who've been injured because of war,"
Giti
"God---- it, Mariam, don't do this to me,"
Jalil
"After the war, the Soviets fell apart, and the West moved on. There was nothing at stake for them in Afghanistan anymore and the money dried up."
Tariq
"Brown tents. Brown people. Brown dogs. Brown porridge."
Tariq
"Fabulous jeeps! Fabulous army! Too bad you're losing to a bunch of peasants firing slingshots!"
Tariq
"I feel better carrying this." (a gun)
Tariq
"I saw so many kids buried. There's nothing worse a person can see."
Tariq
"If I ever get married, they'll have to make room for three on the wedding stage. Me, the bride, and the guy holding the gun to my head."
Tariq
"You asked to see it, you giryanok, you cry-baby! If I'd known yu were going to bawl, I wouldn't have shown you."
Tariq
"You're envious ... [of] my masculine smarts."
Tariq
What's going on back home. It may not be so bad in the end"
Tariq
"Don't worry, hamshira. I understand. It's no trouble. Let me go and buy your tickets."
Wakil
"And you won't be able to run away, because he has two legs and you only have one!"
Zalmai
"Who is that man?" he said now. "I don't like him."
Zalmai
"You can't say [the prayers] like he can."
Zalmai
"It isn't your fault. Do you hear me? Not you. It's those savages, those wahshis, who are to blame. They bring shame on me as a Pashtun,...So don't you blame yourself. No one here blames you. I understand."
Zaman
"Like you we do what we have to do. Allah is good and kind, and Allah provides, and as long He provides, I will see to it that Aziza is fed and clothed. That much I promise you."
Zaman
