Quotes or quotations are phrases, sentences, lines and paragraphs taken from a literary piece. These quotes express universal truths or situations. Some of the best quotes from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner have been analyzed below.
Quotes in The Kite Runner
Quote #1
“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.”
Chapter 1
Amir’s words implicitly demonstrate one of the major themes of the novel, The Kiter Runner. These lines show that Amir is unable to cast off memories of the past, and is always haunted by the memory of leaving Hassan behind in the alley. This sense of irresponsibility or willful neglect stays with him.
Quote #2
“And suddenly Hassan’s voice whispered in my head: ‘For you, a thousand times over.’ Hassan the harelipped kite runner.”
Chapter 1
Hassan speaks these words to Amir when he runs after a kite, that he can do it over and over a thousand times for him. Now Amir’s betrayal of Hassan in response to his altruistic loyalty haunts him whenever he thinks about Hassan saying this memorable line.
Quote #3
“‘There is a way to be good again.’ I looked up at those twin kites. I thought about Hassan. Thought about Baba. Ali. Kabul.”
Chapter 1
Here Amir is remembering words spoken to him by Rahim. Amir is thinking about everything when sitting on a park bench. The collective memories of the kite running, Baba, Hassan and his city Kabul come into his mind to remind him of his past life. He becomes nostalgic thinking about his past.
Quote #4
“Then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break.”
Chapter 2
Amir, the protagonist of the novel, The Kite Runner, shows in these lines that he and Hassan have been fed and taken care of by the same nurse. This means that they are brothers. Ali would remind them of this kinship later. These lines are a sort of a foreshadow to remind the protagonist that his counterpart is actually his kinsman.
Quote #5
“The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women.”
Chapter 2
These lines show Amir thinking about the book in which he has read about the enmity between the ethnic Hazaras and Pashtuns. He thinks about the barbarity of his tribe against the Hazaras, about killing and raping their women. This thinking sets his relationship with Hassan, who belongs to the Hazara community.
Quote #6
“Baba saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can’t love a person who lives that way without fearing him too.”
Chapter 2
These lines define Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba. He thinks that Baba wants things in his own way. His will is supreme in all matters and that is why others fear him. It is difficult for a person to love such a figure and then fear him, too.
Quote #7
“There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.”
Chapter 3
Amir hears these words from Baba, who seems quite liberal. He tells Amir that there is no sin except stealing property or belongings of other people. Then Baba believes that stealing is the only sin in the world. The rest of the sin like murder, adultery, lying are just the forms of stealing or theft.
Quote #8
“A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”
Chapter 3
Baba speaks these words to Rahim, expressing his displeasure with Amir for not standing up for Hassan or himself. He tells him that if a boy does not stand up for himself, he cannot help others as he has no courage to help himself. In fact, it shows that Baba has an air of his own persona spread through such quotations to show that he is a bold and liberal fellow living in Afghanistan of that time.
Quote #9
“But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either.”
Chapter 4
Spoken by Amir, he reflects that Baba has never addressed Ali as his friend. And it is very interesting that he has almost done the same thing with Hassan despite living so close to each other and feeling so much for each other. It seems that he wants to stress that both Baba and he are similar in nature; both have betrayed their friends and have kept them as servants.
Quote #10
“I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn’t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips.”
Chapter 25
In the end, the protagonist, Amir, is in America after managing to rescue Sohrab. He plays along with children after forgetting the pain he went through and compares his smile with a beautiful valley in Afghanistan.
