Darakhshan Tahir Quotes

Three thousand bodies swing forward, three thousand pairs of boots snap together, three thousand backs jerk as if yanked straight by a puppeteer's hand. In the ensuing silence, you could hear a tear drop. ~ Sabaa Tahir

The ocean waves thunder on, and it is man who must swim amongst them. The wind blows, cold and brittle, and it is man who must protect against it. The earth shakes and cracks, swallows and destroys, but it is man who must walk upon it. So it is with death. I cannot surrender. ~ Sabaa Tahir

You're not like the others. You killed to save. You put others first. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Who is my brother now? When did he transform from the boy who made me too-sweet tea to a man with secrets too heavy to share with his little sister? ~ Sabaa Tahir

I don't look at the wound. I don't need to. I watched the Commandant as she carved it into me, a thick-lined, precise K stretching from my collarbone to the skin over my heart. She branded me. Marked me as her property. It's a scar I'll carry to the grave. ~ Sabaa Tahir

She's still clinging to the side of her mountain, just like I'm still wandering lost in my battlefield. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Love. I sigh. Love is joy coupled with misery, elation bound to despair. It is a fire that beckons me gently and then burns when I get too close. I hate love. I yearn for it. And it drives me mad. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Moroccan traffic isn't like normal traffic. It's armed combat, a war of wills, in which only the very bravest have a chance to survive. ~ Tahir Shah

The rest is just wishes and hope, the most fragile of things. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Secrets are a snake's way of doing business." "And snakes survive, ~ Sabaa Tahir

Too much fear and you're paralyzed. Too little fear and you're arrogant. ~ Sabaa Tahir

I don't smile at her. It will only scare her. For a female slave, a smile from a Mask is not usually a good thing. ~ Sabaa Tahir

My journey to the land of the Shuar tribe had taught me the importance of practical gifts. ~ Tahir Shah

Above, the heavens glow, the sky pale with starlight. Some long-buried part of me understands that this is beauty, but I am unable to wonder at it, the way I did when I was a boy. Back then, I clambered up spiky Jack trees to get closer to the stars, sure that a few feet of height would help me see them better. Back then, my world had been sand and sky and the love of Tribe Saif, who saved me from exposure. Back then, everything was different. ~ Sabaa Tahir

The backstreet cafe in Casablanca was for me a place of mystery, a place with a soul, a place with danger. There was a sense that the safety nets had been cut away, that each citizen walked upon the high wire of this, the real world. I longed not merely to travel through it, but to live in such a city. ~ Tahir Shah

Fear can be good, Laia. It can keep you alive. But don't let it control you. Don't let it sow doubts within you. When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible to fight it: your spirit. Your heart. ~ Sabaa Tahir

I am trying to create awareness of the true concept of democracy. ~ Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

A little imagination goes a long way in Fes. ~ Tahir Shah

Slavers catch lies the way spiders catch flies. ~ Sabaa Tahir

How cruel their beauty seems. Do they not know the evil that has taken place in their shadow? ~ Sabaa Tahir

A bloody gloaming then, and bloodier still as twilight fades to dawn. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Mercy is weakness. Offer it to your enemies and you might as well fall upon your own sword. ~ Sabaa Tahir

As far as I was concerned, a little danger of head-shrinking is a small price to pay in return for a people who have remained true to an ancient code. ~ Tahir Shah

I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand. ~ Tahir Shah

Failure doesn't define you. It's what you do after you fail that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfectly good air. ~ Sabaa Tahir

She takes my arm like an old friend would. "Welcome to the Waiting Place, the realm of ghosts. I am the Soul Catcher, and I am here to help you cross to the other side. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead. ~ Tahir Shah

She makes for the closest training building, and I take my time following, watching the way she moves: angry, favoring her right leg, must have bruised the left in practice, keeps clenching that right fist - probably because she wants to punch me with it. ~ Sabaa Tahir

They [terrorists] can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Ummah [global brotherhood]. No, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire. ~ Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

Money spent on good-quality gear is always money well spent. ~ Tahir Shah

My song is not one of peace. It is one of failure and pain. My song is one of battle and blood, death and power. It is not the song of Helene Aquilla. It is the song of the Blood Shrike. ~ Sabaa Tahir

For tonight, maybe we can just be Laia and Elias. ~ Sabaa Tahir

The only place you'll find a map of Blackcliff," a raspy voice intrudes, "is in the Commandant's head. And I don't think you want to go rummaging around in there. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed. ~ Tahir Shah

During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide. ~ Tahir Shah

Venture to a remote corner of a faraway land and, from the moment you get there, every person and every thing becomes an obstacle, designed to entrap you, to stop you proceeding on your way. ~ Tahir Shah

The permanence of death will always feel like a betrayal ~ Sabaa Tahir

This is a bad idea," he murmurs. We're so close that I can see a long eyelash that's landed on his cheek. I can see the hints of blue in his hair. "Then why aren't you stopping it?" "Because I'm a fool." We breathe each other's breath, and as his body relaxes, as his hands finally slide around my back, I close my eyes. Then ~ Sabaa Tahir

My brother is still fighting, and his screams slice right through me. I know then that I will hear them over and over again, echoing in every hour of every day until I am dead or I make it right. I know it. ~ Sabaa Tahir

Amongst the friends of Allah (Awliya), the Qur'an is considered as a love letter from Allah, which inevitably is read continuously to remind them of their Beloved. ~ Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought.
Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind. ~ Tahir Shah

Everyone believes that nothing concerns them until the monsters are knocking on their doors! ~ Sabaa Tahir

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else. ~ Tahir Shah

On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish. ~ Tahir Shah

The stories we tell have power, of course. But the stories that go untold have just as much power ~ Sabaa Tahir

The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs. ~ Tahir Shah

I take a breath. Words seem suddenly trite and useless, so I step forward and grab Elias's hands, remembering Pop. Touch heals, Laia. I hold fast to him, trying to put everything I feel into that touch. I hope your Tribe is all right. I hope they survive the Martials. I'm truly, truly sorry. It's not enough. But it's all I have. After a moment, Elias lets out a breath and leans his forehead against mine. "Tell me what you told me that night in my room at Blackcliff," he murmurs. "What your Nan used to say to you." "As long as there is life" - I can hear Nan's warm voice as I say it - "there is hope." Elias lifts his head and looks down at me, the coolness in his eyes replaced by that raw, unquenchable fire. I forget to breathe. "Don't you forget it," he says. "Ever." I nod. The minutes pass, and neither of us pull away, instead finding solace in the coolness of the night and the quiet company of the stars. ~ Sabaa Tahir