There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the stark contrast between the existence of children and the lack of a proper childhood experience in Afghanistan.
Khaled Hosseini's quote draws attention to the harsh realities faced by children in Afghanistan, where ongoing conflict and instability rob them of the joy and innocence typically associated with childhood. It serves as a poignant reminder of how external circumstances can profoundly affect the formative years of a child's life, suggesting that many children exist but do not truly experience the carefree nature of youth.
In practice
In a speech addressing humanitarian needs, one might use this quote to emphasize the urgency of providing aid to children in conflict zones.
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.
If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.
When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself. As you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.
A sannyasin is one who has no prejudices, who has not chosen any ideology to be his own, who is choicelessly aware of all that is. In this choicelessness you will be in the middle. The moment you choose, you choose some extreme. The moment you choose, you choose against something; otherwise there is no question of choice. Being in a choiceless awareness is another meaning of being in the middle.
I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.