Quotes by "Tahereh Mafi"

Because I was dying. 　　And Warner could’ve let me die. He was angry and hurt and had every reason to be bitter. I’d just ripped his heart out; I’d let him believe something would come of our relationship. I let him confess the depth of his feelings to me; I let him touch me in ways even Adam hadn't. I didn't ask him to stop. 　　Every inch of me was saying yes. 　　And then I took it all back. Because I was scared, and confused, and conflicted. Because of Adam. 　　Warner told me he loved me, and in return I insulted him and lied to him and yelled at him and pushed him away. And when he had the chance to stand back and watch me die, he didn’t. 　　He found a way to save my life. 　　With no demands. No expectations. Believing full well that I was in love with someone else, and that saving my life meant making me whole again only to give me back to another guy. 　　And right now, I can’t say I know what Adam would do if I were dying in front of him. I’m not sure if he would save my life. And that uncertainty alone makes me certain that something wasn't right between us.

And I do. I do wonder, I think about it all the time. What it would be like to kill myself. Because I never really know, I still can't tell the difference, I'm never quite certain whether or not I'm actually alive. I sit here every single day. Run, I said to myself. Run until your lungs collapse, until the wind whips and snaps at your tattered clothes, until you're a blur that blends into the background. Run, Juliette, run faster, run until your bones break and your shins split and your muscles atrophy and your heart dies because it was always too big for your chest and it beat too fast for too long and you run. Run run run until you can't hear their feet behind you. Run until they drop their fists and their shouts dissolve in the air. Run with your eyes open and your mouth shut and dam the river rushing up behind your eyes. Run, Juliette. Run until you drop dead. Make sure your heart stops before they ever reach you. Before they ever touch you. Run, I said.

They filled our world with weapons aimed at foreheads and smiled as they shot 16 candles right through our future. They killed those strong enough to fight back and locked up the freaks who failed to live up to their utopian expectations.

My thoughts, I think, will soon be sound. My mind, I hope, will soon be found.

Hope. It's like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It's a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it's the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.

We're going to find time for happiness. Because how can we stand against tyranny if we ourselves are filled with hate?

It’s not the pain that’s unendurable. It’s the hopelessness. It’s the hopelessness that makes you reckless.

I stand perfectly still. Every inch of my skin is taut with tension, fraught with feeling and the pressure is building in my chest, pounding louder and faster and harder, overcompensating for my stillness. I do not tremble when I’m frozen in time. I train my breaths to come slower, I count things that do not exist, I make up numbers I do not have, I pretend time is a broken hourglass bleeding seconds through sand. I dare to believe. I dare to hope....

Sometimes a book isn't a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Sometimes it's the only story you knew how to tell.

The words get easier the moment you stop fearing them.

Because a quiet night is not the same as a silent one, a firm man is not the same as a steady one, and a bright light is not the same as a brilliant one.

I love the sight of his naked body. especially in these quiet, vulnerable moments. These brackets of time stapled between dreams and reality are my favorite. There's a sweetness in this hesitant consciousness - a careful, gentle return of form of function, I've found I love these minutes most for the delicate way in which they unfold. It's tender. Slow motion. Time tying its shoes.

I'd moved enough times now to know that time was a fleeting, exhaustible thing. I didn't want to waste it.

His gaze lingers along the lines of my body, long enough to strike a match to the lighter fluid flowing in my veins. I ignite.

I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.

"You" he whispers, "you destroy me. Juliette I want you. I want all of you. I want you inside and out and catching your breath and aching for me like I ache for you. I've never tried to hide that from you. I never pretended I wanted anything else-Yes I do. I do want to be your friend. I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. the one who will memorize the things you say as well as the shape of your lips when you say them. I want to know how to convince you to design a smile just for me . Yes I do want to be your friend. I want to be your best friend in the entire world. I want so many things. I want your mind. your strength. I want to be worthy of your time. I want to feel your heart racing next to mine and know it's racing because of me. because you want me- "Juliette" he says, "I'm so desperately in love with you."