When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.

Call it Art stealing Life’s thunder.

The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and gunfire was not yet born.

Ahmad Zahir

There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.

parents. “When you kill a man, you steal a life,” Baba said. “You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.

that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

this was my one chance to become someone who was looked at, not seen, listened to, not heard.