Top 239 Quotes & Sayings by Afghani Authors - Page 4

Peace cannot come without the government of Afghanistan speaking directly to the Taliban or the Taliban talking directly to us.

It was too hard to understand marrying someone I didn't know. When you don't like someone, if he touches you, it's harder than anything.

Thank God there has been no recurrence of 9/11. It is not because of luck - it is because of mass sacrifice and effort.

When I talk to another Afghan I am his or her equal and that moves me to tears.

Organizations are accumulations of historical debris. They are not consciously thought. So when you ask the Education Ministry 'What's your core function and who's your client?' they laugh at you. When I say that the client is the Afghan child - and the Ministry is an instrument, not the goal - it's greeted with shock. It's a new idea.

I grew up in a society with a very ancient and strong oral storytelling tradition. I was told stories, as a child, by my grandmother, and my father as well.

I felt on the periphery of high school culture; one of those invisible creatures that walk the campus. I think it was a lot worse for my parents.

In Afghan society, parents play a central role in the lives of their children; the parent-child relationship is fundamental to who you are and what you become and how you perceive yourself, and it is laden with contradictions, with tension, with anger, with love, with loathing, with angst.

We are not a battlefield and we will not allow anyone to use our territory against any of our neighbour, but we will not allow our neighbours to use our territory this way either.

I would like people to have an appreciation for what happened to women under the Taliban, as in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns.' I hope they get a sense of how connected we all are.

People find meaning and redemption in the most unusual human connections.

Every global leader that I have seen has at least agreed on one point: I do have the world's most difficult job. But I hope to make it easier for my successor.

President Trump is engaging and if you get your points across then he asks you questions.

At the end of any peace deal, the decision-maker will be the government of Afghanistan.

My dream has always been to inspire young girls to see their own power and follow big dreams and realize that they have potential.

As long as I am president, the rights of women will be protected.

Economic chasm between people is something that is of interest to me. And something that I used to write about even as a child. It's something I've revisited a few times in my writings.

I want to study law, become a lawyer, and work in Afghanistan for human rights.

Chadaris, as far as I'm concerned, I think should be a personal choice of the women and the members of her family. I personally would not wear a chadari.

I hear from non-Afghan immigrants - Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs in France - all the time. These people have had to redefine their lives, which is what my family went through when we came to the U.S. in 1980.

I hate resting. I feel restless. My preference is to be working.

I grew up very poor, so I learned how to stretch a dollar. It's nice to combine high-end with low-end or whatever-end you want.

You don't need a cheerleader. That's the worst thing that can happen to you.

If I've achieved a higher respect for women and for their role in society, then I would be very happy. That would really be my greatest wish.

There's no place for mob justice in Afghanistan.

I remember reading 'The Grapes of Wrath' in high school in 1983. My family had immigrated to the U.S. three years before, and I had spent the better part of the first two years learning English. John Steinbeck's book was the first book I read in English where I had an 'Aha!' moment, namely in the famed turtle chapter.

I cannot tolerate immorality.

There's no excuse for the macro corruption, but Afghanistan was always an informal society with a weak central government.

I don't necessarily see myself as an activist, running down the street and knocking at every door.

I want to differentiate between stability and security: Stability comes from the hearts of people and acceptance of the judicial system. Security comes from the barrel of a gun and the threat of the use of force.

Afghanistan fortunately is one of the richest countries in terms of water, mineral resources, location and human capital.

Usually in films, when Muslims pray, it's either before or after they've blown something up.

In my 20s, life seemed endless. At 49, I've had a chance to see how dark life can be, and I am far more aware of the constraints of time than when I wrote 'The Kite Runner.' I realise there is only a limited number of things I can do.

Afghanistan is doomed if women are barred once again from public life.

Afghanistan is developing its infrastructure to come up with a new direction of connectivity through energy transmission and modernisation of transport sector in an effort to cater to needs of modern day age.

There's a Darwinian struggle amongst terror groups for hegemony. Da'esh has broken out of the pack because Al-Qaeda and the rest rendered allegiance to Mullah Omar.

My freshman year in college, I got a job working security. This was a high-tech building in Santa Clara, engineers coming in and out all the time.

Family is so central to Afghan life that all Afghan stories are family stories. Family is something I simply can't resist because all the great themes of human life - duty, grief, sacrifice, love, envy - you find all those things within families.

Sometimes I think the most difficult moments in life were actually good because they made me strong. I was a child labourer. From this, I learned to stand on my own feet. So I don't want to forget the difficulty of my life.

President Obama called me on his last day in office and said the only person who never asked him for anything was me.

The strange dilemma of the 'ethnic-fiction' writer is that you are supposed to carry a banner for your homeland, be a voice for it, and educate the rest of the world about it, but I think that's far too onerous a burden for any writer to bear.

I have a particular disdain for Islamic extremism, and of course, in both 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' that's obvious.

My platform for activism is my music, and the issue I am working to address is child marriage. Everyone can find an issue that they care about and their own authentic way of expressing and sharing their message and working for change. When you speak authentically about something that matters to you, your voice has even more power.

Whenever my mom goes to Afghanistan, I'm just like, 'Bring me jewelry.'

My books are about ordinary people, like you, me, people on the street, people who really have an expectation of reasonable happiness in life, want their life to have a sense of security and predictability, who want to belong to something bigger than them, who want love and affection in their life, who want a good future for the children.

Afghanistan cannot be a burden on the international community and it has to become an asset.

I just always knew I wanted to be an actor. I gave my Emmy acceptance speech when I was 11. But, I wasn't allowed to do plays and things like that. It was considered dangerous. My parents didn't think it was safe for a girl to do that, and they definitely didn't think it was interesting to participate in the arts.

When I was being sold into marriage, it was hard to see a future for myself.

We need to get a stable Afghanistan that can ensure the security of Americans, Europeans, and others on the one hand, but more fundamentally our own democratic rights and institutions.

We've had a difficult legacy of 40 years, and cleaning up is not going to be a one day job. But we are engaged in a systematic effort, we have not allowed formation of new militia groups, and we are reforming the local police systematically so that there won't be abuse.

Every song is a long process. First I have to write a story for it, and then to make it into a song, I have to make it short and then shorter - so it's not easy!

Particularly the mark for success for us would be that a woman can not only walk in the streets of every major city, but can go from one province to another without any hindrance.

If election is your goal, you're never going to engage in reform. Reform has to be your goal. Election is the means. You run for office in order to do something, not in order to perpetuate yourself.

If we looked in the world of 1945 and looked at the map of capitalist economies and democratic polities, they were the rare exception, not the norm.

My dad was in a Beatles cover band. My mom wore Candies and belly buttons. The people in our family were very glamorous. They wore pearls like Jackie O.

I spent a lot of winters in my childhood flying kites with my brother, with my cousins, with friends in the neighborhood. It's what we did in the winter. Schools close down. There was not much to do.

One of the things novels should do is shine a light on those parts of us that are common, the fibres that connect all of us. They should convey the sense that we're all connected, coming from the same tree, sharing common roots.

The jury is out as to whether the Afghans are up to the task of protecting their people.

You have to be able to interact with people whose politics you disagree with.