“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”
“A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”
“Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended.”
“I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.”
My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.”
”For you a thousand times over”
”his not my friends, his my servant”
”my first word was baba, his was Amir’
”when it comes to words Hassan is an imbecile”
''Your a prince and I love you''
Amir and Hassan, Satuns are Kabul?''
'That might, I discovered the tenderness of a woman'
'for me, America was a place to bury my memories'
'I'm going to find Soraya' I said.
'When I was a kid, he was the first grown-up I ever thought of as a friend'
'The problem was, his nature was going to get us all killed' (Amir about Baba)
'I tore the sealed envelope. Inside, I found a Polaroid photograph and a folded letter'
'I kept thinking of that day in 1974 in the hospital just after Hassan's harelip surgery'
'Now everyone in the room was either dead or dying. Except for me'.
'I didn't need any of this shit'
'You bastards...you goddamn bastards...All of you, bunch of lying goddamn bastards'
'I'm thirty eight years old and I've just found out that my whole life is one big fucking lie'
'I stormed out the apartment'
'I was learning that Baba had been a thief. And a thief of the worst kind, because the things he'd stolen has been sacred'
'was it too far-fetched to imagine that things might have been different if I hadn't?'
'I can't go to Kabul I had said to Rahim Khan, I have a wife in America, a home, a career, a family'
'Kabul is not the way you remembered it'
'You won't find kites or kite shops...those days are over'
'I handed the old man a hundred thousand Afghans, or the equivalent of about 3 dollars'
'I had just learned ore about my mother from this old man on the street than I ever did from Baba'
'I realized something: I would not eave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab'
'I wouldn't find out until later, but I felt healed'
'I don't expect you to go with me'
'But I wished I didn't have to go through alone'
'I'll be back, not so sure I would be'
'I remember how envious I'd been of Hassan's bravery'
'I had never so much thrown a punch in my entire life'
'I don't know at what point I started laughing, but I did'
'What was so funny was that, for the first time since 1975, I felt at peace'
'But I felt healed. Healed at last'
'I was on the ground laughing'
'I stumbled down the hallway, Sohrab's little hand in mine'
'It was about then I passed out'
'I know who I am, and I hurt everywhere'
'For some reason I can't think of, I want to thank the child'
'I wasn't such a good friend, I'm afraid'
'I out my hand in his arm, gingerly, but he flinched'
'He was just a hazara, wasn't he?'
'He had the blue kite in his hands; that was the first thing I saw. And I can't lie now and say my eyes didn't scan it for any rips'
'I finally had what I wanted all those years'
'I watched Hassan get raped'
'A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with his lie anymore'
'Saw each other in a way that we never had before'
'I didn't cry, and I didn't chase the car'
'Do you always have to be the hero?'
'Can't you just let it go for once'
'You could die in a place like this'
'For me, America was a place to bury my memories'
;I could walk into this river, let my sins down to the bottom'
'I had won on the genetic lottery that had determined my sex'
'Don't you challenge me in public, Amir. Ever. Who do you think you are?'
'The names rang in my head: Hassan, Sohrab, Ali, Farzana, and Sanubar'
Hearing Rahim Khan speak Ali's name was like finding an old dusty music box that hadn't been opened in years'
'Time can be a greedy thing'
'Make shadow animals on the wall'
'Wished he'd let me be the favourite'
'Baba would buy it for me - but then he'd buy it for Hassan too'
'Hassan by far was the greatest kite runner I had ever seen'
'But there was something fascinating...in a sick way about teasing Hassan'
'Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass'
'Except his didn't looked forced'
'Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over'
'Maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother'
'Hassan understood I was just nervous'
'Hassan always understood about me'
'But also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed'
'They say there is a brotherhood between people who've feed from the same breast'
'I see the sheep's eyes' - 'It is a look that will haunt my dreams for weeks'
'Stand up for Hassan, the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past - and accept whatever would happen to me. or I could run'
'I ran because I was a coward'
'The lamb I had to slay to win Baba'
'I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975'
'The past claws it's way out'
'It was my past of unatoned sins
'red with long blue tails'
'He took you for someone else'
'I reached across my seat, slung my arm around him'
'Hassan and I fed from the same breast'
'We took our first steps on the same lawn, and under the same roof we spoke our first words'
'What happened in the winter of 1975 and all that followed was already laid in those first words'
'I was so proud of Babe, of us'
'Sometimes I wished they'd all died along with their parents'
'I was always learning things about Baba from other people'
'I had killed his beloved wife'
'I always felt that Baba hated me a little'
'But I hadn't turned out like him. Not at all'
'When it became abundantly clear that I hadn't inherited a shred of his athletic talents'
'I'd tease him, expose his ignorance'
'I would always feel guilty about it later'
'I would tell myself that was amends enough for a harmless prank'
'After all didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons'
'I laughed. Clutched him in a hug and planed a kiss on his cheek'.
'I gave him a friendly shove'
'I worshiped Baba with intensity approaching the religious'
'But right then, I wished I could open my veins and drain his cursed blood from my body'
'I said - loving him for it'
'A voice, cold and dark, suddenly whispered in my ear'
;What does he know, that illiterate Hazara?'
'He'll never be anything' - 'How dare he criticize you?'
'But I never got to finish that sentence'
'Because suddenly Afghanistan changed forever'
'Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul'
'Words were secret doorways, and I held all the keys'
'Later would tell myself I hadn't felt envious of Hassan. Not at all'
'I was glad about whatever had happened that night'
'I wished again I'd look up and see Baba coming up the hill'
'But he's not my friend! I almost blurted'
'Hassan's face was my earliest memory'
'I wished I had some kind of scar that got Baba's sympathy'
'Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres of existence'
'Kites were the one paper-thin slice of intersection between those spheres'
'Amir and Hassan the Sultans Of Kabul'.
”My hands are stained with Hassans blood; I pray to God doesn’t let me get stained with the blood of his boy too’.
”If someone were to ask me today whether the story of Hassan, Sohrab and me ends with happiness, I wouldn’t knwo what to say”.
”I wondered how long Sohrab had laid in bed starring at the photo”.
'I'd had my own dreams for Sohrab'.
'Sohrab!" I called, rising from my bed. "I have great news. " I knocked on the bathroom door. "Sohrab! Soraya jan just called from California. We won't have to put you in the orphanage, Sohrab. We're going to America, you and I. Did you hear me? We're going to America!'
Suddenly I was on my knees, screaming. Screaming through my clenched teeth. Screaming until I thought my throat would rip and my chest explode. Later, they said I was still screaming when the ambulance arrived'
