The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and gunfire was not yet born.
Exploitation to finance a beach house in Hawaii was one thing. Doing it to feed your kids was another.
I want to scream again, and I remember that last time I felt this way, riding with Baba in the tank of the fuel truck, buried in the dark with other refugees. I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my leg blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away. There will be no other reality tonight.
No one snaps our composure quite like someone we love.
Aku harus berkonsentrasi, tidak boleh melakukan kesalahan.
Jika kau sudah hidup selama aku, kau akan mengerti bahwa kekejaman dan kemuliaan hanyalah nuansa yang berbeda dari warna yang sama.
That there was in her life the absence of something, or someone, fundamental to her own existence. Sometimes it was vague, like a message sent across shadowy byways and vast distances, a weak signal on a radio dial, remote, warbled. Other times it felt so clear, this absence, so intimately close it made her heart lurch.
Dan jika kau miskin, penderitaan menjadi mata uangmu.
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.
Anak-anak bukanlah buku mewarnai. Kau tidak bisa begitu saja mengisi mereka dengan warna-warna kesukaanmu.
So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one. But just the one. Don’t either of you ask me for more.
A spectacularly foolish and baseless faith, against enormous odds, that a world you do not control will not take from you the one thing you cannot bear to lose.
Nana said, “Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.
And, just like that, he had thrown at me his own little test. If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he would toy with me, test my integrity.
Tapi tentu saja, memang gampang menjadi pintar kalau kamu punya senjata yang siap dipakai.
Pembelaan diri tidak ada hubungannya dengan kekejaman.
Every sinner must be punished in a manner befitting his sin!
To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say.
Tuhan telah menganugerahkan bakat istimewa kepadamu. Tugasmu saat ini adalah mengasah bakatmu karena orang yang menyia-nyiakan bakat pemberian Tuhan sama saja dengan seekor keledai.
I dare, I dare allow myself the hope that, after you read this, you will be more charitable to me than I ever was to you. That you might find it in your heart to come and see your father. That you will knock on my door one more time and give me the chance to open it this time, to welcome you, to take you in my arms, my daughter, as I should have done all those years ago. It is a hope as weak as my heart. This I know. But I will be waiting. I will be listening for your knock. I will be hoping.