Watch Me Book One Quotes

“I keep going: “But there are other ways to connect with people.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know,” I say, popping a piece of lettuce into my mouth. “Like, just paying attention. I pay attention to you.”
She turns pink. Almost all of her turns pink. It’s fucking adorable. I want to die.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Watch Me

“I'd finally crossed my arms and said, "Are you going to do this forever? Seriously?
You're just going to sit there and stare at me and give me nothing? What's your favorite color, Rosabelle? Can you tell me your favorite color? Or is that some kind of highly protected trade secret you can't speak into the world for fear of inciting a new world war?" and then she laughed at me, and then I had a stroke. I actually felt the blood drain from my face. My hands went hot, then clammy.
It was a soft, musical sound of delight I'd never heard from her. Hell, I'd never
even seen her smile before.
She was still smiling when she looked at me after that, the gentle expression lin-
gering on her face.
My fucking soul left my body.
I'd always thought she was gorgeous, but I had no idea what I was missing. The way her eyes lit up, the way her nose wrinkled. She's been eating more every day, looking healthier, growing only more radiant.
"Wow," I'd whispered, gaping at her like an idiot discovering his hands for the first time. And then, realizing I'd said the word out loud, I reached inside myself and put my fist through my brain.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Watch Me

“If she's not driving me up a wall she's driving me insane. Sometimes all she does is look at me. I never know what to do when she does this, so I just sit there as she stares, her eyes raking over every inch of me, wondering what the hell she's thinking and knowing she'll never tell me. Sometimes she won't speak for so long the silence begins to make me sweat. I wake up thinking about her. I fall asleep thinking about her. I accidentally brushed against her going through a doorway and the way my body reacted you'd think she'd pinned me the wall and offered to unzip my pants. I had to leave the building just to get some air. I've started dreaming about her. I wake up in the middle of the night overheated and out of my mind. I've had trouble sleeping all my life-but this might be the worst sleep I've had in years.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Watch Me

“For as long as I can remember, every psychological evaluation and aptitude test agreed: The child appears to be dead inside.
There was something wrong with me, something broken, some meaningful reason why I never laughed the way other children did, never smiled at strangers. Why I never cried when they sliced me open over and over and over again, trying to feed my mind to a machine.
I would not be a scientist or a doctor. Not a mother or a soldier. I would grow up to be an efficient killer. An excellent asset to the regime. At the height of The Reestablishment’s power, I never imagined my skills would be so enthusiastically desired, but now that we lack the robust military of a bygone era, mercenaries are more important than ever. Spies, assassins, executioners. We’ve been forced to downsize our kill capacity, designing missions with surgical precision and efficiency.
This is all my life is worth. And I decided long ago to sacrifice my dead body so that Clara might live.
“By the way,” says James, interrupting my reverie. “If you’re going to pretend to go through the motions, you need to work on the details. You carry that notebook around but you never carry a pen. You're not fooling anyone."
I don't know what prompts me to say it. I'm not sure I'm thinking at all when I
say, softly-
"I've been fooling people all my life. You're the only one paying attention.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Watch Me