Natalia > Natalia's Quotes

“Why do you call her 'love'?" James asks. "I've heard you say that before, too. A lot. Are you in love with her? I think Adam's in love with her. Kenji's not in love with her, though. I already asked him."
Warner blinks at him.
"Well?" James asks.
"Well what?"
"Are you in love with her?"
"Are you in love with her?"
"What?" James blushes. "No. She's like a million years older than me."
"Would anyone else like to take over this conversation?" Warner asks, looking around the group.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think we can take on two hundred soldiers? I know I am an extremely attractive man, J, but I am not Bruce Lee.”
“Who’s Bruce Lee?”
“Who’s Bruce Lee?” Kenji asks, horrified. “Oh my God. We can’t even be friends anymore.”
“Why? Was he a friend of yours?”
“You know what,” he says, “just stop. Just—I can’t even talk to you right now.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“The tattoo is just setting below his hp bone.
H e l l i s e m p t y
a n d a l l t h e d e v i l s a r e h e r e

I kiss my way across the words.
Kissing away the devils.
Kissing away the pain.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Aaron Warner Anderson, chief commander and regent of Sector 45, son of the supreme commander of The Reestablishment.

He has a soft spot for fashion.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“It's not charity," I snap. "He cares about me--and I care about him!"

Warner nods, unimpressed. "You should get a dog, love. I hear they share much the same qualities.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I like the way I feel about myself when I'm with him." I say quietly. "Warner thinks I'm strong and smart and capable and he actually values my opinion. He makes me feel like his equal--like I can accomplish just as much as he can, and more. And if I do something incredible, he's not even surprised. He expects it. He doesn't treat me like I'm some fragile little girl who needs to be protected all the time.”
― 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

“Come back to life, love. I'll be here when you wake up.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I can do anything I want.
Be with anyone I want.
And it'll be my choice.”
― 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

“You think Warner is sexy?"
...
"I do like his face.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“So that's it?" Kenji says. "You just like him for his personality, huh?"

"What?"

"All of this," Kenji says, waving a hand in the air, "has nothing to do with him being all sexy and shit and him being able to touch you all the time?"

"You think Warner is sexy?"

"That is not what I said.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Have you ever been in love?" I ask, turning on my side to look at him. He stares up at the sky. Blinks a few times.
"Nope."
I roll back, disappointed.
"Oh."
"This is so depressing." Kenji says.
"Yeah"
"We suck."
"Yeah.”
― 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

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

“Three forty-five-pound plates on each side of what Kenji told me is an Olympic bar, which weighs an additional forty-five pounds. I can't stop staring. I don't think that I've ever been more attracted to him in all the time I've known him."
"So this gets you going, huh?"
...
"I've never seen him in sweatpants before..."
...
"I bet you've seen him in a lot less.”
― 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

“So she told me a story. A story about a boy who was born with very green eyes, and the man who was so captivated by their color that he searched the world for a stone in exactly the same shade.” His voice is fading now, falling into whispers so quiet I can hardly hear him. “She said the boy was me. That this ring was made from that very same stone, and that the man had given it to her, hoping one day she’d be able to give it to me. It was his gift, she said, for my birthday." He stops. Breathes. “And then she took it off, slipped it on my index finger, and said, ‘If you hide your heart, he will never be able to take it from you'.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I love you," I whisper. "I love you exactly as you are.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Good morning, sunshine." Kenji blinks in our direction.
"Morning," I say back.
"I wasn't talking to you," he says, trying to smile.
"I was talking to the sunshine.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Can you, like, see invisible people, too?"
"No," Warner says to him, eyes focused in front of him. "I can feel your presence. Hers, most of all."
"Really?" Kenji says. "That's some weird shit. What do I feel like? Peanut butter?"

Warner is unamused.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“This isn't about Adam or Warner," I tell him, "This is about me and what I want. This is about me finally understanding where I want to be in ten years. Because I'm going to be alive, Kenji. I will be alive in ten years, and I'm going to be happy. I'm going to be strong. And I don't need anyone to tell me that anymore. I am enough, and I always will be.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I touch the tip of my finger to his lips. "There are secrets in here," I say. "I want them out."

He tries to bite my finger.

I steal it back.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I loved making you mad," he says to me, his eyes wicked. "I love making you mad.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“I don't think you're crazy." The world is blurring away as I watch it through the window. "And I don't think that you're a psychopath. I also don't think you're a sick, twisted monster. I don't think that you're a heartless murderer, and I don't think you deserve to die, and I don't think you're pathetic. Or stupid. Or a coward. I don't think you're any of the things people have said about you.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Please," he says. "I'm begging you to stop."

I still.

"I can't stomach your pain," he says. "I can feel it so strongly and it's making me crazy- please," he says to me. "Don't be sad. Or hurt. Or guilty. You've done nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't be sorry, either," he says. "God, the only reason I'm not going to kill Kent for this is because I know it would only upset you more.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Good morning, sweetheart."
"I like that," I say quietly, smiling even though he can't see it. "I like it when you call me sweetheart."
He laughs then, his shoulders shaking as he does. He rolls onto his back, arms stretched out at his sides.
God, he looks so good without his clothes on.”
― 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

“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