Defy Me Quotes

“You think these recent events are everything. You think Aaron fell in love with your friend of several months, a rebel girl named Juliette. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know that Aaron has been in love with Ella for the better part of his entire life. They've known each other since childhood...…..The reason he had to keep wiping their memories was because it didn't matter how many times he reset the story or remade the introductions - Aaron always fell in love with her. Every time.


- Delalieu”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I love you, Ella. I will love you for the rest of my life. My heart is yours. Please don't ever give it back to me.

- Warner”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I can't remember a single time in my life when someone apologized to me for hurting my feelings. No one has ever cared about my feelings long enough to apologize for hurting them. In my experience, I'm usually the monster. I'm the one expected to make amends.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Marry me,' he whispers.
I stare at him, disbelief and joy colliding. And it's the look in his eyes —the hopeful, terrified look in his eyes— that nearly kills me. I'm suddenly crying.
I clasp my hands over my face. A sob escapes my mouth. Gently, he pries my hands away from my face.
'Ella?' he says, his words barely a whisper.
I'm still crying when I throw my arms around his neck, still crying when he says, a little nervously—
'Sweetheart, I really need to know if this means yes or no—'
'Yes,' I cry, slightly hysterical. 'Yes, yes to everything with you. Yes to forever with you. Yes.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Aaron always fell in love with her. Every time.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Happiness does not happen. Happiness must be uncovered, separated from the skin of pain. It must be claimed. Kept close. Protected.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“In this new, turbulent reality, the one person I recognize is him. My memories of him - memories of us - have done something to me. I've changed somewhere deep inside. I feel different. Heavier, like my feet have been more firmly planted, liberated by certainty, free to grow roots here in my own self, free to trust unequivocally in the strength and steadiness of my own heart. It's an empowering discovery, to find that I can trust myself - even when I'm not myself - to make the right choices. To know for certain now that there was at least one mistake I never made.

Aaron Warner Anderson is the only emotional through line in my life that ever made sense. He's the only constant. The only steady, reliable heartbeat I've ever had.

Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron.

I had no idea how much we'd lost, no idea how much of him I'd longed for. I had no idea how desperately we'd been fighting. How many years we'd fought for moments - minutes - to be together.

It fills me with a painful kind of joy.

- Ella”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I love you, Ella.' I whisper. 'I will love you for the rest of my life. My heart's yours. Please don't ever give it back to me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“And I realize then, in a moment that terrifies me, that I want this, forever. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I want to build a future with her. I want to grow old with her.
I want to marry her.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“He smiles. "You know- I feel everything when you touch me, love. I can feel your excitement. Your nervousness. Your pleasure. And I love it," he says quietly. "I love the way you respond to me. I love the way you want me. I feel it when you lose yourself, the way you trust me when we're together. And I feel your love for me," he whispers. "I feel it in my bones,"
~ Warner to Ella/Juliette”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“This is, after all, what we're fighting for, isn't it?

A second chance at joy.

- Ella”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I'm not trying to get you to sleep with me. I just literally had to lie down. Thank you for appreciating my face. I've always thought I had an underappreciated face.

- Kenji”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Forgive me. I know it all seems stupid now, but I don't want to take anything for granted anymore. Forgive me for hurting you. Forgive me for not trusting you. I took my pain out on you and I'm so sorry. I was selfish, and I hurt you, and I'm so sorry.

- Ella”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“It was obvious, every time he put them in the same room. They were like magnets.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I feel it, I feel my thin morals dissolving. I feel my flimsy, moth-eaten skin of humanity begin to come apart, and with it, the veil keeping me from complete darkness. There are no lines I won't cross. No illusions of mercy.

I wanted to be better for her. For her happiness. For her future.

But if she's gone, what good is goodness?

- Warner”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“That you could love me at all seems like some kind of miracle."
She smiles, even as she shakes her head. "That's ridiculous," she says. "It's very, very easy to love you."

-Warner and Ella”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I don't think you should treat me like this, like I'm some idiot nothing, just because I don't know how to be a douchebag.
- Kenji”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“You eat like a caveman."
"No, I don't," he says angrily. And then, a moment later: "Do I?"

Warner to Kenji”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“You know —I feel everything when you touch me, love. I can feel your excitement. Your nervousness. Your pleasure. And I love it,' he says quietly. 'I love the way you respond to me. I love the way you want me. I feel it, when you lose yourself, the way you trust me when we're together. And I feel your love for me,' he whispers. 'I feel it in my bones.'
'I have loved you my entire life.' He looks up, looks at me with so much feeling it nearly breaks my heart.
'Ella,' he says, his voice rough with feeling. 'I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Right now all I want is this. I just want to be here. With you. Whatever comes next, we'll face it together.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“If you want nice Kenji maybe you should check back in the morning, because right now all I've got is jack shit in the way of pleasantries.

- Kenji”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Today has been a shitstorm of shit. A tornado of shit. I can't take it anymore. I don't know whether to sit down and cry or set something on fire.

-Kenji”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“No one warned me about the nightmares, the panic attacks, or the dark destructive thoughts that would follow. No one explained to me how darkness works, how it feasts on itself or how it festers. I hardly recognize myself these days. Becoming an instrument of torture destroyed what was left of my mind.
- Warner”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Aaron Anderson Warner is the only emotional through line in my life that ever made sense. He's the only constant, The only steady, reliable heartbeat I've ever had.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“I sold my soul for a few years with my mother, and now, after everything, I don't even know if it'll be worth it.

- Warner”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Years of practice have taught me to bury my emotions as a reflex - especially in his presence - and it takes a few seconds for the feelings to emerge. They form slowly, infinite hands reaching up from infinite graves to fan the ancient rage I've never really allowed myself to touch.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“Oh Ella...You've caused me a great deal of trouble this year. The paperwork alone.

- Evie Sommers”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“None of us got to choose this life. None of us enjoyed being taught to torture before we could even drive. And it's not insane to imagine that sometimes even horrible people are searching for a way out of their own darkness.

- Nazeera”
― Tahereh Mafi, Destroy Me

“You think these recent events are everything. You think Aaron fell in love with your friend of several months, a rebel girl named Juliette. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know that Aaron has been in love with Ella for the better part of his entire life. They've known each other since childhood...….. The reason he had to keep wiping their memories was because it didn't matter how many times he reset the story or remade the introductions - Aaron always fell in love with her. Every time.

- Delalieu”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me

“The reason he had to keep wiping their memories was because it didn’t matter how many times he reset the story or remade the introductions— Aaron always fell in love with her. Every time.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Defy Me