Tahereh Mafi Quotes

It's strange. How hollow i feel. Like there might be echoes inside of me. Like I'm one of those chocolate rabbits they used to sell around Easter, the ones that were nothing more than a sweet shell encapsulating a world of nothing. I'm like that. I encapsulate a world of nothing.
Tahereh Mafi
I remember it so well. Dying. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. I couldn't scream because my lungs were torn apart or full of blood. I don't know. I just had to lie there, trying to breathe, hoping to drop dead as quickly as possible. And the whole time, the whole time I kept thinking about how I'd spent my entire life being a coward, and how it got me nowhere. And I knew that if I had the chance to do it all again, I'd do it differently. I promised myself I'd finally stop being afraid.
Tahereh Mafi
And maybe if I can find a way to stop being scared, I'll actually figure out how to make friends. To be strong. To stop wallowing in my own problems.
Tahereh Mafi
I can’t be my own person, if i constantly require someone else to hold me together.
Tahereh Mafi
He's wrong he's so he's so wrong he's more wrong than an upside-down rainbow.
Tahereh Mafi
Juliette." I close my eyes. He says, "I don't want you to call me Warner anymore." I open my eyes. "I want you to know me," he says, breathless, his fingers pushing a stray strand of hair away from my face. "I don't want to be Warner with you," he says. "I want it to be different now. I want you to call me Aaron.
Tahereh Mafi
You think that because I am unwanted, because I am neglected and-and discarded-" My voice inches higher with every word, the unrestrained emotions suddenly screaming through my lungs. "You think I don't have a heart? You think I don't feel? You think that because I can inflict pain, that I should? You're just like everyone else. You think I'm a monster just like everyone else. You don't understand me at all.
Tahereh Mafi
I love you."He breaks.His voice. His back. His knees. His face. He breaks. He has to hold on to the side of his desk. He can't meet my eyes. "I love you," he says, his words harsh and soft all at once. "I love you and it isn't enough. I thought it would be enough and I was wrong. I thought I could fight for you and I was wrong. Because I can't. I can't even face you anymore--
Tahereh Mafi
While a part of me wants to know, another part of me is too exhausted to ask.
Tahereh Mafi
I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
Tahereh Mafi
This planet is a broken bone that didn’t set right, a hundred pieces of crystal glued together. We’ve been shattered and reconstructed, told to make an effort every single day to pretend we still function the way we’re supposed to. But it’s a lie, it’s all a lie.
Tahereh Mafi
It sounds crazy, to think that I cared so much without ever talking to you.
Tahereh Mafi
Is it possible to love someone and then stop loving them? I don't think I even know what love is
Tahereh Mafi
A tired starving dog so thin and frail it looks like it could be knocked over by the wind. But it's staring at me. Unafraid. Mouth opened. Tongue lolling. I want to laugh out loud. I glanced around quickly before scooping the dog into my arms. I don't need to give my father anymore reasons to castrate me, and I don't trust my soldiers not to report something like this. That I would play with the dog.
Tahereh Mafi
I keep sniffing my skin, pleasantly surprised by how nice it is to smell like a flower. I've never smelled like anything before.
Tahereh Mafi
The sun is an arrogant thing, always leaving the world behind when it tires of us.The moon is a loyal companion.It never leaves. It's always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Everyday it's a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.
Tahereh Mafi
Of course I remember you." My voice is a strangled whisper. I squeeze my eyes shut. "You were the only one who ever looked at me like a human being.
Tahereh Mafi
I felt the tears streak down my cheeks but I wasn't crying.
Tahereh Mafi
Selfish needs, wants, and desires needed to be obliterated. Greed, overindulgence, and gluttony had to be expunged from human behavior. The solution was in self-control, in minimalism, in sparse living conditions; one simple and a brand-new dictionary filled with words everyone would understand.
Tahereh Mafi
Tell me what you want" he [Warner] says desperately. "Tell me what to do," he says, "and I'll do it.
Tahereh Mafi
Because something inside of my heart is ripping apart and it feels like fear, it tastes like panic and anxiety and desperation and I don't know how to understand th image in front of me. I don't want to see Warner like this. I don't want to think of him as anything other than a monster.This isn't right
Tahereh Mafi
He's looking at the wall and at the floor and at the bedsheets and at the way his knuckles look when he clenches his fist but no not at me he won't look at me and his next words are so, so soft. "Because they're dead, love. They're all dead.
Tahereh Mafi
Juliette ? ” A tentative voice . “ Are you okay? ” I lower the pillow . Blink up . Warner is wearing a towel . A towel . I want to roll under the bed .
Tahereh Mafi
I peek up at his features, at the crooked grin i want to savor, at the color in his eyes i'd use to paint a million pictures.
Tahereh Mafi
I clench my fists and try not to scream and I tuck my friends in my hea
Tahereh Mafi
So I take a deep breath.Step forward.Let go.10 seconds and I'm trying to breathe9And I'm trying to be brave8But the truth is I'm scared out of my mind7And I have no idea what's waiting for me behind that door6And I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a heart attack5But I can't turn back now4Because there it is3The door is right in front of me2All I have to do is knock1Butthe door flies open first.
Tahereh Mafi
For so many years I lived in constant terror of myself. Doubt had married my fear and moved into my mind, where it built castles and ruled kingdoms and reigned over me, bowing my will to its whispers until I was little more than an acquiescing peon, too terrified to disobey, too terrified to disagree. I had been shackled, a prisoner in my own mind.But finally, finally, I have learned to break free.
Tahereh Mafi
Maybe I was crazy to consider it, but I’d always hoped that if I were a good enough girl, if I did everything right, if I said the right things or said nothing at all—I thought my parents would change their minds. I thought they would finally listen when I tried to talk. I thought they would give me a chance. I thought they might finally love me. I always had that stupid hope.
Tahereh Mafi
I'm beginning to think of hope as a dangerous, terrifying thing.
Tahereh Mafi
It’s like there are a million screams caught inside of my chest but I have to keep them all in because what’s the point of screaming if you’ll never be heard and no one will ever hear me in here. No one will ever hear me again.
Tahereh Mafi
Uh, yeah - how about a warm hell no to that request? Does that work for you? Because it works for me.
Tahereh Mafi
I can't be my own person if I constantly require someone else to hold me together.
Tahereh Mafi
Nothing in this life will ever make sense to me but I can't help but try to collect the change and hope it's enough to pay for our mistakes.
Tahereh Mafi
he says : " please don't shoot me for this " and he kissed me .
Tahereh Mafi
His smile is laced with dynamite.
Tahereh Mafi
The only existence I know now is the one I was given. An echo of what used to be.
Tahereh Mafi
1,320 seconds walk into the room before he does.
Tahereh Mafi
Alice would choose to love herself, different and extraordinary, every day of the week.
Tahereh Mafi
I didn't want the clothes or the perfect shoes or the expensive anything. I didn't want to be draped in silk. All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.
Tahereh Mafi
My father couldn't warm my frozen hands.
Tahereh Mafi
The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do.
Tahereh Mafi
I can do anything I want. Be with anyone I want. And it'll be my choice.
Tahereh Mafi
She'd decided long ago that life was a long journey. She would be strong and she would be weak, and both would be okay.
Tahereh Mafi
My thoughts, I think, will soon be sound.My mind, I hope, will soon be found.
Tahereh Mafi
I am not myself.My thoughts are tangled in words that are not my own.
Tahereh Mafi
We've been shattered and reconstructed, told to make an effort every single day to pretend we still function the way we're supposed to. But it's a lie, it's all a lie; every person, place, thing and idea is a lie. I do not function properly. I am nothing more than the consequence of catastrophe.
Tahereh Mafi
I hear Warner laugh.I see him smile.It's the kind of smile that transforms him into someone else entirely, the kind of smile that puts stars in his eyes and a dazzle on his lips and I realize I've never seen him like this before. I've never seen his teeth--so straight, so white, nothing less than perfect. A flawless, flawless exterior for a boy with a black, black heart. It's hard to believe there's blood on the hands of the person I'm staring at. He looks soft and vulnerable--so human. His eyes are squinting from all his grinning and his cheeks are pink form the cold.He has dimples.He's easily the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.And I wish I'd never seen it.
Tahereh Mafi
My mind is a warehouse of carefully organized human emotions.I lock away the things that do not serve me.
Tahereh Mafi
I'm wearing dead cotton on my limbs and a blush of roses on my face.
Tahereh Mafi
Hate looks just like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into the semblance of something too passive to punch.
Tahereh Mafi
Studies have shown that thinking and wondering lead to thoughtful decision-making. It's an epidemic.
Tahereh Mafi
I grieve nothing. I take everything.
Tahereh Mafi
Hang tightHold on Look upStay strongHang on Hold tightLook strongStay up One day I might breakOne day I mightb r e a kfree
Tahereh Mafi
Warner. A white bird with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head. A fair - skinned boy with gold hair, the leader of Sector 45. It was always him. All along . The link.
Tahereh Mafi
Alice jumped from flagstone to flagstone, her face caught in the rainlight glow, her hand grasping for a touch of gold. The towns excitement was contagious, and the air was so thick with promise Alice could almost bite into it.
Tahereh Mafi
we write every day, we fight every day, we think and scheme and dream a little dream every day. manuscripts pile up in the kitchen sink, run-on sentences dangle around our necks. we plant purple prose in our gardens and snip the adverbs only to thread them in our hair. we write with no guarantees, no certainties, no promises of what might come and we do it anyway. this is who we are.
Tahereh Mafi
And he leans in, so carefully. Breathing and not breathing and hearts beating between us and he's so close, he's so close and I can't feel my legs anymore. I can't feel my fingers or the cold or the emptiness of this room because all I feel is him, everywhere, filling everything and he whispers"Please."He says, "Please don't shoot me for this.
Tahereh Mafi
And I don't know much about anything in this world but I do know how to read The book written in his eyes. The way he looks at me.
Tahereh Mafi
First! Does this need to be said? Second! Does this need to be said by me? And third! Does this need to be said by me right now?
Tahereh Mafi
Best to introduce yourself to patience now, so that it might find you when you call upon it later.
Tahereh Mafi