Quotes by 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.

I spent my life folded between the pages of books.

While a part of me wants to know, another part of me is too exhausted to ask.

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 cant meet my eyes. I love you, he says, his words harsh and soft all at once. I love you and it isnt enough. I thought it would be enough and I was wrong. I thought I could fight for you and I was wrong. Because I cant. I cant even face you anymore--

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 dont have a heart? You think I dont feel? You think that because I can inflict pain, that I should? Youre just like everyone else. You think Im a monster just like everyone else. You dont understand me at all.

Juliette. I close my eyes. He says, I dont 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 dont want to be Warner with you, he says. I want it to be different now. I want you to call me Aaron.

Hes wrong hes so hes so wrong hes more wrong than an upside-down rainbow.

I can’t be my own person, if i constantly require someone else to hold me together.

And maybe if I can find a way to stop being scared, Ill actually figure out how to make friends. To be strong. To stop wallowing in my own problems.

I remember it so well. Dying. It was the most painful thing Ive ever experienced. I couldnt scream because my lungs were torn apart or full of blood. I dont 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 Id 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, Id do it differently. I promised myself Id finally stop being afraid.

Its strange. How hollow i feel. Like there might be echoes inside of me. Like Im 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. Im like that. I encapsulate a world of nothing.

“I’m not sure. But there’s something about the darkness, the stillness of this hour, I think, that creates a language of its own. There’s a strange kind of freedom in the dark; a terrifying vulnerability we allow ourselves at exactly the wrong moment, tricked by the darkness into thinking it will keep our secrets. We forget that the blackness is not a blanket; we forget that the sun will soon rise. But in the moment, at least, we feel brave enough to say things we’d never say in the light.”

“Lift your hips for me, love.”

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.”

“Im oxygen and hes dying to breathe.”

“I feel like I’ve been split open and stuffed with sunshine.”

“I love you, I whisper. I love you exactly as you are.”

“Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles”

“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.”

“That this girl would know exactly how to shatter me.”