The Kite Runner

Chapter 1 opening line

“I became what I am today at the age of twelve on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975”

Description of Hassan’s mother

“A beautiful but notoriously unscrupulous woman”

Description of Amir’s house in Afghanistan (early on)

“Intricate mosaic tiles, gold stitched tapestries”

Soldier shouting at Hassan

“You! The Hazara! Look at me when I’m talking to you”

Textbooks about the Hazara’s

“School textbooks barely mentioned them”

Amir orphanage (early on)

“I already hated all of the kids he was building the orphanage for”

Baba bear

“Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands”

Amir reading to Hassan

“My favourite part of reading to Hassan was when we came across a big word that he didn’t know. I’d tease him”

The historical background Hazaras/Pashtuns

“Because history isn’t easy to overcome”

Amir plot hole

“The plot hole. Taught by Hassan of all people”

Amir not friend

“He’s not my friend… he’s my servant”

Assef chapter 5 Hazaras

“To rid Afghanistan of the dirty, kasseef Hazaras”

Hassan pure

“He was so godamn pure”

Amir favourite

“I wished he’d let me be the favourite”

Assef ‘just’

“It’s just a Hazara”

Assef dog

“A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog”

Amir lamb

“It was the look of the lamb”

Hassan loyalty

“Everywhere I turned I saw signs of his loyalty, his godamn unwavering loyalty”

The pomegranate

“You’re a coward!… he opened it and crushed it against his forehead”

Baba rich

“But my father was rich and everyone knew him”

Baba to the soldier

“Tell him I’ll take a thousand bullets before I let this indecency take place”

Baba in America

“For me America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba it was a place to mourn his”

Baba’s house in Afghanistan compared to America

“Homes that made Baba’s house in Wazir Akbar look like a servants hut”

Soraya initial description

“A slim-hipped beauty with velvety coal hair”

Amir genetics

“I cringed a little at the position of power I had been granted, and all because I had won the genetic lottery that determined my sex”

Reputation

“Bruises healed, reputation did not”

Singing voice

“Had once been famous in Kabul for her enchanting singing voice”

Amir guilt

“Those thorny barbs of guilt bore into me”

Visa

“You practically needed a VISA to go from one neighbourhood to the other”

Farid optimism

“I see America has infused you with the optimism that has made her so great”

Hassan’s mother later

“She had a dimpled smile and a walk that drove men crazy”

Quote from Hassan about the house

“What will he think when he comes back to Kabul after the war and finds that I have assumed his place in the house”

Hassans letter literacy

“I have taught him to read and write so he does not grow up stupid like his father”

Taliban and Hazara’s

“The Taliban said he was a liar and a thief like all Hazara’s”

Meat

“Only the Taliban can afford meat now”

Tourist

“I feel like a tourist in my own country”

Baba money bills

“Baba always carried an extra handful of Afgani bills in his pocket just for them”

Women and the Taliban

“Their mothers can’t feed them because the Taliban won’t allow them to work”

Amir’s house after the war

“Like much in Kabul my father’s house was the picture of fallen splendour”

Farid Shi’a

“You came all the way from America for… a Shi’a”

Assef garbage

“Afganistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage”

Assef my

“How talented he is, nay, my Hazara boy”

Stoning, flogging

“Stoning adulterers? Raping children? Flogging women for wearing high heels? Massacring Hazara’s? All in the name of Islam?”

Baba door

“Baba would’ve busted through the front doors and demanded to be taken to the man in charge”

Baba America Hassan

“Maybe in America, when Baba looked at me he saw a bit of Hassan”

Death certificates

“Death certificates? This is Afganistan we’re talking about. Most people don’t have birth certificates”

Chew dirt

“I asked him if he would chew dirt to prove his loyalty to me”

Hazara boy

“You will never again refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence”

Run kite

“Do you want me to run that Kite for you?”