Best Quotes from Believe Me by Tahereh Mafi with Page Numbers

‘I see now that I was correct.’

‘You are so beautiful,’ I say, unable to shed the awe in my voice.

‘Is this really happening?’ I whisper.

‘It’s just a dress.’

‘He feels terrible about it.’

‘But it was your wedding dress,’ I say, my voice failing me now.

‘You can’t murder him,’ she says simply. ‘Not now. Not ever.’

‘Today is your wedding day,’ I say, unable to meet her eyes.

‘We can still make this work.’

‘This better be good, Kenji, or Warner is going to kill you, and I’m going to help him do it.’

They are, for the most part, kind. Curious. Overwhelmed with gratitude and desperate to put a face to their freedom.

I want them to know how I feel. I want them to know how much we care—and how much we’re still planning on doing to rebuild, to get things right.

You will. I’ll make sure you have the chance to say all those things.

It’s only been two weeks, love. We don’t have the necessary infrastructure to make that happen.

A darkness still clings to all of us—but Adam seems undeniably changed.

She realized she didn’t want to forget her years as Juliette—or to diminish the young woman she was, fighting against all odds to survive.

To the world, she is formidable. To me? She is the world.

I know that this is the first time she’s ever held one. Without hesitation, without fear, without danger of causing an innocent creature any harm.

When I hear her laugh, I am happy.

The vast majority of them are good.

Every day that Ella remains alive and well is a victory.

Ella never seems to lose hope in humanity.

I want nothing more than to escape this noise with Ella.

I want to be required by no one but my wife.

She is always striving to build a better future.

Ella adores this idiot.

She’s built her own family.

Sun and rain make a rainbow.

It’s true; I am insufferable.

Those who truly care for you desire your unqualified joy.

"History has taught us that revolutions often fail—even after they’ve won—for fighters and rebels are often unequipped to handle the crushing weight of all they’ve fought for."

"Revolutionaries are naive. They don’t seem to understand how the world really works, or how difficult it is to sate the whims and wishes of so many."

"We’re drowning. We need help. We lost too many of our own in the battle."

"If we don’t, we’re going to fail before we’ve even had a chance to start."

"I would remind you that you are not the only person on earth ever to have been married. The rest of us must continue to move, Warner, even if it means deprioritizing your personal happiness."

"My powers are not infallible. People can hide their true feelings from me, and I am, therefore, entirely capable of making mistakes."

"This is it, then. Par for the course. Joy evaporates from my life the moment I begin to trust the sun."

"I don’t need a wedding. I just need an officiant. It doesn’t have to be a big deal."

"You know as well as I do that there is no guarantee things will ever calm down around here."

"It was Juliette’s idea."

It’s become an unexpected refuge for me.

Castle...claims even now that the animals had not died out entirely.

Birds hide during severe weather, not unlike humans.

I take a moment to study its patchy brown fur.

The sight drives a stake into my heart.

I love you so much. I just want to do this right—for both of us.

I want you to have a beautiful wedding. I think it matters more to you than you think.

Nothing. I just want you. I want you to be my family.

I just thought I heard—

For some inexplicable reason, this animal trusts me.

The worst uncertainties are the ones I cannot kill or control.

I am forced instead to marinate in these thoughts, the anxiety abrading me more in every minute.

The mental exertion necessary to withstand these simple blows leaves me worse than irritable.

It is impossible not to feel the difference when she is gone.

I’ve always wanted a single moment of quiet.

You’re so worried about keeping her safe that you’re putting our entire movement in jeopardy.

You’re making decisions from a place of fear.

You’re not the only one who lies awake at night worrying for the safety of their loved ones.

I would happily watch the world go up in flames if anything happened to her.

You wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for her.

I feel her fear as she tiptoes into the space, all displaced by a sudden relief when she catches sight, no doubt, of my prone body.

She is relieved to discover me asleep. She is relieved she doesn’t have to speak with me.

The pressure in my chest intensifies.

Ella has fallen asleep in moments.

I feel frozen. Fastened to this cold floor by fear.

I hadn't known what to do with the jewelry box in my pocket.

More than that, it is all I have left of my mother.

Sometimes I fear I will be trapped forever in this cycle: incapable of happiness, inseparable from my demons.

I seem doomed to relive the events in perpetuity, combing them for answers.

I just don’t know what she sees in you.

Sometimes, it’s a person.

I always wanted a door I might close—for even a moment—against the violence of the world.

I didn’t understand then that a home is not always a place.

I want to burn off the residue of yesterday.

I know better than to be optimistic, but even as I forbid myself to think it, I cannot help but reflect that the word surprise is seldom associated with something negative.

Hope takes hold of me, forces from me the dregs of my composure.

I never thought I’d come close to touching such a dream; I never thought I’d be able to trust, or love, or find peace.

What would it be like to set down the weight of darkness in exchange for a family, a home, a refuge?

I want to bridge the distance between us.

All I want is this. Her. Us.

"You’re a real, flesh-and-blood person. Why don’t you care?"

"I take her in my arms and she laughs, breathlessly, just until she meets my eyes."

"I worry sometimes that my love for her will expand beyond the limitations of my body."

"Ella has organized something elaborate. In secret."

"I don’t want you to look back on our wedding day as a placeholder for something else."

"I want to walk down an aisle to reach you. I want you to see me in a pretty dress."

"You deserve to have that."

"You’re always worried about my safety and my happiness and the things I might need. Why don’t I get to do that for you?"

"I’ll marry you as you are right now, in the clothes we’re wearing, right where we’re standing."

"I didn’t even know his face could do that."

Her happiness is so electric it’s contagious.

I never want to do anything to make it stop.

We’ve been growing toward each other from the opposite sides of the same path since the beginning, haven’t we?

It’s kind of adorable.

I love these rings. I love them so much.

I know you probably didn’t think about this when you had them made—but the emeralds remind me of your eyes.

You have no idea how badly I want you.

You have no idea how you make me feel when you look at me like that.

I need hours. Days. Alone with you.

One day we’ll have a proper bed, and then I doubt I will ever sleep again.

"We have the power to break these cycles. We can choose happiness for ourselves and for each other."

"Happiness will stop feeling strange if we see it every day."

"I am nothing. If I manage to be anything, it is only because of you."

"I want to take care of you, too. I want to give you peace. I want to give you a home. With me."

"Don’t talk about yourself like that."

"You never complain when I want to eat every meal with everyone. You never complain when we spend hours in the Q in the evening..."

"There’s no one in the whole world like you. I’m so grateful for you."

"The work is going to be brutal. The least I can do is give proper shelter, privacy, and amenities to those dedicating their lives to its reconstruction."

"You have no idea what it means to me, love. It’s the greatest gift anyone has ever given me."

"Even fewer remain who can look beyond their own struggles long enough to bear witness to the suffering of others; fewer still, who would do anything about it."

"I can’t believe it. I could kiss its rotting floor."

"Thank you for everything."

"I mean, I don’t really recommend it, because the kitchen probably needs the most work, but hey, it’s your house."

"You don’t know how to problem solve without resorting to murder!"

"You might want to consider—"

"I should just kill you here, shouldn’t I?"

"You’re the only kid allowed at the wedding."

"Congratulations, I’m really happy for you guys."

"How did you know?"

"I’d acquired friends."

I want to live a life like this, to be able to withstand unexpected moments of kindness delivered by the person I love most in the world.

I am so happy it’s physically uncomfortable; I am so full of hope it seems to depress my chest, forcing the air from my lungs.

We should be united right now.

You think you know everything. You’re uncooperative, you’re uncompromising, and you’ve already decided you’ve figured everything out.

I am only trying to help.

You think this is funny? What am I supposed to do with a dog?

Perhaps.

I want us to try again.

You know she’d love to have a dog.

For all of us.

I can’t seem to breathe.

It’s a struggle even to hear myself think, to unearth my own consciousness.

I feel my heart rate start to slow, the iron fist around my lungs beginning, slowly, to unclench.

The sound of his voice is a strange lifeline.

For everything.

This is the beginning of a new chapter for all of us.

Nothing is ever going to be the same.

I feel my heart pounding in my chest, happiness threatening to destroy me.

I’m smiling now, smiling like the most ordinary of men, staring at the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known.

Believe me.

Never fear; Alizeh knew her blood would not stain.

She dreamed of unleashing her mind, of freeing her hands to create without hesitation.

Would that she might slough off the burdens she carried with her always.

Alizeh had learned the hard way to relinquish her commissions long before she grew to love them.

Alizeh knew herself to be in possession of great fortune.

This was the first time in years she had privacy, a door she might close.

Alizeh could fashion an elegant morning gown in a quarter of the time.

She had been so thoroughly saturated with happiness she feared she might sink through the floor.

No doubt she could feign stupidity in exchange for safety.

Perhaps it had been her head, too full as it was, that kept landing her in the street.

You are the finest of us all.

When a home was not found, it was forged; indeed it could be fashioned even from nothing.

He wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t shut him out.

Even now she felt the devil’s voice, felt it like a breath loosed inside her body.

Alizeh had long ago learned to be resourceful.

I’ve never wanted so badly to cry.

Alizeh was losing her calm.

For the first time that day, Alizeh relaxed.

The longer she stared at him the harder her heart raced.

And in the dim light the young man seemed carved not from clay, but marble.

It felt good to be touched.

Deep, I took a deep breath and held it, the smell of diesel in my lungs, on my tongue.

I pictured my father again.

His reassuring smile that everything would be fine.

I didn’t know how long I’d have to spend pretending to be sad about it.

I felt the telltale burn of tears and squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to get up.

Stand up. Walk.

I could not see his hair.

They forget about me.

I always hope someone will show up.

I didn’t really think a newspaper would hold up against the rain, but it was all I had.

I was growing sick on the news, sick of it, heedlessly gorging myself on the pain, searching in vain for an antidote in the poison.

Silence was too welcoming of unwanted thoughts.

The weight of its presence seeming to depress the air from my lungs.

I contemplated stillness.

But then, rain.

I thought of my mother, my optimistic mother who thought that if she locked herself in her closet I wouldn’t hear her sobs.

I thought of my father, six feet of dying man swaddled in a hospital bed, staring into the middle distance.

I forced myself to move, to shutter the windows in my mind as I went.

It arrived in a hurry, battering my face, blackening my clothes, pooling in the folds of my backpack.