Nardine > Nardine's Quotes

“Ignite, my love. Ignite.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“His hands are holding my cheeks, and he pulls back just to look me in the eye and his chest is heaving and he says, "I think," he says, "my heart is going to explode," and I wish, more than ever, that I knew how to capture moments like these and revisit them forever.

Because this.

This is everything.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Don't do that," he says. "Don't ask me questions you already know the answers to. Twice I've laid myself bare to you and all it's gotten me was a bullet wound and a broken heart. Don't torture me," he says, meeting my eyes again.
"It's a cruel thing to do, even to someone like me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Hey, um, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a friend of mine," he says. "Have you seen her? She's a tiny little thing, cries a lot, spends too much time with her feelings-"
"Shut up, Kenji!"
"Oh wait!" he says. "It is you.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Words are like seeds, I think, planted into our hearts at a tender age. They take root in us as we grow, settling deep into our souls. The good words plant well. They flourish and find homes in our hearts. They build trunks around our spines, steadying us when we’re feeling most flimsy; planting our feet firmly when we’re feeling most unsure. But the bad words grow poorly. Our trunks infest and spoil until we are hollow and housing the interests of others and not our own. We are forced to eat the fruit those words have borne, held hostage by the branches growing arms around our necks, suffocating us to death, one word at a time.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“And if you insist on continuing to make assumptions about my character, I’ll advise you only this: assume you will always be wrong.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Can you hear my heart? I want to ask him.

I want you to make a list of all your favorite things, and I want to be on it.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“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, Ignite Me

“I'm not trying to fix you; I don't think you need to be fixed. I'm not trying to turn you into someone else. I only want you to be who you already are. Because I think I know the real you. I think I've seen him."
Warner says nothing, his chest rising and falling.
"I don't care what anyone else says about you," I tell him. "I think you're a good person.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“In a world where there is so much to grieve and so little good to take? I grieve nothing. I take everything.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I do want you," I say to him, my voice shaking. "I want you so much it scares me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I promise myself then, in that moment, that I will hold him forever, just like this, until all the pain and torture and suffering is gone, until he's given a chance to live the kind of life where no one can wound him this deeply ever again.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Do you never get exhausted being so wholly unbearable? You have as much charisma as the rotting innards of unidentified roadkill.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Is this really happening?" I hear him whisper.
"What?" I blink, try to stay awake.
"You feel so real," he says. "You sound so real. I want so badly for this to be real."
"This is real," I say. "And things are going to get so much better. I promise."
He takes a tight breath.
"The scariest part," he says, so quietly, "is that for the first time in my life, I actually believe that.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Lift your hips for me, love.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“So the two of you"-Ian tries to find his voice- "I mean, together-- you two could basically--"
"Take over the world?" Warner is looking at the wall now.
"I was going to say you could kick some serious ass, but yeah, that, too, I guess.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“You’re perfect,” I tell him, so overcome I forget myself. “All of you. Your entire body.
Proportionally. Symmetrically. You’re absurdly, mathematically perfect. It doesn’t even make sense
that a person could look like you,”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“You allow the world to think you're a heartless murderer," I tell him. "And you're not."

He laughs, once; his eyebrows lifting in surprise. "No," he says. "I'm afraid I'm just the regular kind of murderer.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“It's the kind of kiss that inspires stars to climb into the sky and light up the world. The kind that takes forever and no time at all.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“People can think whatever they like....I don't desire their validation.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“There are three things you should know about me, love." He steps forward.
"The first," he says, "is that I hate my father more than you might ever be capable of understanding."
He clears his throat.
"Second, is that I am an unapologetically selfish person, who, in almost every situation, makes decisions based entirely on self-interest. And third." A pause as he looks down. Laughs a little.
"I never had any intention of using you as a weapon.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“What difference does it make?" he says. "People can think whatever they like. I don't desire their validation."
"So you don't mind," I ask him, "that people judge you so harshly?"
"I have no one to impress," he says. "No one who cares about what happens to me. I'm not in the business of making friends, love. My job is to lead an army, and it's the only thing I'm good at. No one," he says, "would be proud of the things I've accomplished. My mother doesn't even know me anymore. My father thinks I'm weak and pathetic. My soldiers want me dead. The world is going to hell. And the conversations I have with you are the longest I've ever had.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Juliette, love,” he says to me, still holding my eyes. “You have just started a war.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“You were so hurt,” he says, “that I’d asked you to wear a dress.” He looks at me then, eyes sparkling with amusement. “Here I was, prepared to defend my life against an uncontrollable monster who could kill,” he says, “kill a man with her bare hands—” He bites back another laugh. “And you threw tantrums over clean clothes and hot meals. Oh,” he says, shaking his head at the ceiling, “you were ridiculous. You were completely ridiculous and it was the most entertainment I’d ever had. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it. I loved making you mad,” he says to me, his eyes wicked. “I love making you mad.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“He looks up, so slowly, gold lashes lifting to reveal more sadness and beauty that I've ever seen in the same moment. I didn't know a person could convey so much with just one look. There's extraordinary pain in him. Extraordinary passion.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska