Tahir Quotes & Sayings

In India an explanation is often more confusing than what prompted it. — Tahir Shah

The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture. — Tahir Shah

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories. — Tahir Shah

I should just build a bleeding house here," I mutter as I pick myself up off the snow-covered ground. "Maybe get a few chickens. Plant a garden. — Sabaa Tahir

All evil here. Monsters. Little monsters and then big ones. — Sabaa Tahir

At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount. — Tahir Shah

When I read a script, if I feel it's written with the idea of just bashing other people, then I shy away from it. Sometimes it's some guy coming out with his own hatred, and I don't need to be a part of it. — Faran Tahir

The first few hours in the cell were quite stimulating. I'd never been in a prison cell before and was quite enjoying the experience. — Tahir Shah

When you play a character, you get to see the world through their eyes. Whether it's a fictional world or a real world, you do get to see somebody else's point of view, whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. — Faran 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

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

So my choices are to stay and be evil or to run and be evil. Wonderful. — Sabaa Tahir

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

Everyone knows that even the best exorcism has to be renewed once in a while. — Tahir Shah

There comes a stage at which a man would rather die cleanly by a bullet than by the unknown terror of the phantom in the forest. — Tahir Shah

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

After I pull my eyes away from her, I realize that I'm not the only one dumbstruck. Many of the young men around me sneak glances at her. She doesn't seem to notice, which, of course, makes her all the more intriguing. — Sabaa Tahir

When Hel and I were Fivers, a Barbarian raiding party took us prisoner. I was trussed like a festival-day goat, but they tied Helene's hands in front of her with twine and propped her on the back of a pony, assuming she was harmless. That night, she used the twine to garrote three of our jailers and broke the necks of the other three with her bare hands.
"They always underestimate me," she said afterward, sounding puzzled. — Sabaa Tahir

You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release. — Sabaa Tahir

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

Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship. — Tahir Shah

All the beauty of the stars means nothing when life here on earth is so ugly. — Sabaa Tahir

Stories are a communal currency of humanity. — Tahir Shah

As the head of an expedition, you can't pussyfoot around being polite to everyone. You have to show your teeth once in a while; a little growling goes a long way. — Tahir Shah

Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair. — Tahir Shah

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

True suffering lies in the expectation of pain as much as in the pain itself. — Sabaa Tahir

There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that's a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged but it's there. Don't let them take it from you. — Sabaa Tahir

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

There's nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping. — Tahir Shah

Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don't lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier. — Sabaa Tahir

There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades. — Tahir Shah

I was becoming addicted to Bombay. There was squalor and poverty, but I had begun to realise my good fortune and would never again forget it. — Tahir Shah

This is what it means to have faith, to believe in something greater than yourself." A — Sabaa Tahir

You fool, Helene. When you love, there is always more pain. — Sabaa Tahir

Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. It acts as a barrier that makes the rest of the world seem unreal. — Tahir Shah

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

Shadows will bloom in your heart, and you will become everything you hate. — Sabaa Tahir

Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home? — Tahir Shah

Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity. — Tahir Shah

Laia. The Scholar girl. Another ember waiting to burn the world down,' she says. 'Will you hurt her too? — Sabaa Tahir

[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity. — Tahir Shah

In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense. — 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

The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw even a seasoned traveller into fits of apoplexy. At a desert encampment on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, a hard-bitten adventurer had downed a peg of local fire-water then told me the tale. Farakka was a ghost train, he said, haunted by ghouls, Thuggees, and thieves. Only a passenger with a death wish would go anywhere near it. — Tahir Shah

The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest. — Tahir Shah

Don't lock yourself away from those who care about you because you think you'll hurt them or they'll hurt you. What point is there in being human if you don't let yourself feel anything? — Sabaa Tahir

For Kashi,
who taught me that my spirit
is stronger than my fear — Sabaa Tahir

For me, nature is something you watch on the Discovery Channel, or on the evening news
as you learn how much more of it's been savaged to make way for the Blackberry realm that is my home — Tahir Shah

It will get better. You'll never forget them, not even after years. But one day, you'll go a whole minute without feeling the pain. Then an hour. A day. That's all you can ask for, really." His voice drops. "You'll heal, I promise. — Sabaa Tahir

At the last moment, the fish and I exchange a troubled glance. The murrel seems to be demanding an explanation. Alas, I am in no position to start justifying the unusual treatment. What comes next is a new experience for both the fish and me. — Tahir Shah

I am alone, and I am a Mask. — Sabaa Tahir

Nan always said that as long as there is life, there is hope. — Sabaa Tahir

In a nation where the disbelievers sought Heaven from the idols, the Messenger of Allah [Prophet Muhammad] taught them that Heaven can be found through a simple smile. — Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

Safety is an illusion never to trust. — 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

You are an ember in the ashes, Elias Veturius. You will spark and burn, ravage and destroy. You cannot change it. You cannot stop it. — Sabaa Tahir

A fundamental aim of Mawlid al-Nabi a is to attain love and proximity of the Prophet and to revive the believer's relationship with his most revered person. — Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

In any case, a little danger is a small price to pay for ridding a place of tourists. — Tahir Shah

Bombing embassies or destroying non-military installations like the World Trade Center is no jihad. [T]hose who launched the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks not only killed thousands of innocent people in the United States but also put the lives of millions of Muslims across the world at risk. Bin Laden is not a prophet that we should put thousands of lives at risk for. — Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

Experience has taught me the power of trophies. You may have every knick-knack and useless contraption ever devised, but while they weigh you down, a simple trophy can go a long, long way. — Tahir Shah

Perhaps grief is like battle: After experiencing enough of it, your body's instincts take over. When you see it closing in like a Martial death squad, you harden your insides. You prepare for the agony of a shredded heart. And when it hits, it hurts, but not as badly, because you have locked away your weakness, and all that's left is anger and strength. — Sabaa Tahir

We had the kind of conversations that only great friends can ever share. They were touched with magic. — Tahir Shah

The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess. — Tahir Shah

Few people want witnesses to their pain, and grief is the worst pain of all. — Sabaa Tahir

Lured by the wilderness, and by the chance of spotting rare desert elephants, a few intrepid tourists make their way to the Skeleton Coast each year. It's just about as remote as any tourist destination on earth, but one that pays fabulous dividends. — Tahir Shah

Even here, the soldiers speak of the hunt for the Empire's greatest traitor. And they speak of the girl you travel with: Laia of Serra. And - and the Artist . . . sometimes in his nightmares, he speaks too." "What does he say?" "Her name," Tas whispers. "Laia. He cries out her name - and he tells her to run. — Sabaa Tahir

He came to the conclusion that humans confused the content with the container.
They would gorge themselves on great plates of inferior food, imagining it to be delicious because there was simply so much of it. Or, they would make half wits their leaders, merely because they were pleasing to the eye, or because their words were spoken in honeyed voices.
And when it came to information, they would champion weighty tomes that contained almost no real content, while shunning small books that imparted real truth. — Tahir Shah

The stars are so different when you're free. — Sabaa Tahir

So long as you fight in the darkness, you stand in the light. — Sabaa Tahir

So many bleeding, stupid questions. Do girls think like this all the time? No wonder they're so confusing. — Sabaa Tahir

Family is worth dying for, killing for. Fighting for them is all that keeps us going when everything else is gone. — Sabaa Tahir

The field of battle is my temple. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release. — Sabaa Tahir

A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you. — Tahir Shah

I'm too hot to care. — Sabaa Tahir

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

We match each other stroke for stroke until I get a hit on her right arm.

She tries to switch sword arms, but I jab my scim at her wrist faster than she can parry. Her scim goes flying, and I tackle her. Her white-blonde hair tumbles free of her bun.

"Surrender!" I pin her down at the wrists, but she trashes and rips one arm free, scrabbling for a dagger at her waist. Steel stabs at my ribs, and seconds later, I am on my back with a blade at my throat.

"Ha!" She leans down, her hair falling around us like a shimmering silver curtain. — Sabaa Tahir

I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains. — Tahir Shah

Life is hard enough without having to avoid entire rooms in my own head. — Sabaa Tahir

You will be chained to the darkness within yourself as surely as if chained to the walls of a prison cell. — Sabaa Tahir

Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged, but it's there. Don't let them take it from you, Elias. — Sabaa Tahir

The quest for a lost city erodes your body, damaging you beyond all reason. But it is your mind that bears the heaviest toll. Listen to the doubters, the worriers and the weak, and the vaguest hope of success evaporates. — Tahir Shah

your sins were blood, child, you would drown in a river of your own making." Elias — Sabaa Tahir

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

None of them seemed to mind sliding around in the faeces and choking in the smoke. They were determined not to miss the opportunity of watching a foreigner make a fool of himself. — Tahir Shah

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

As far as Samson was concerned I was just another foreigner in pursuit of a lunatic quest. — Tahir Shah

Two reeds drink from the same stream. One is hollow, the other is sugarcane. - MOROCCAN PROVERB — Tahir Shah

I do not doubt, I do not hesitate. I am the Lioness's daughter, and I have the Lioness's strength. — Sabaa Tahir

Sometimes loneliness is a choice. — Sabaa Tahir

As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes. — Tahir Shah

I know what it is to lose those you love. I taught myself not to feel anything at all. For so long that it wasn't until I met you that — Sabaa Tahir

The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation. — Tahir Shah

There are two ways to find a lost city. The first is to rely on luck alone, the second is to control all the information. — Tahir Shah

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

If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure. — Tahir Shah

My father never told us how the stories worked. He didn't reveal the layers, the nuggets of information, the fragments of truth and fantasy. He didn't need to
because, given the right conditions, the stories activated, sowing themselves. — Tahir Shah

I recognize the smell - his smell - spice and rain. — Sabaa Tahir

Running an expedition can bring out the worst in a man. It can make you a power-crazed monster. — Tahir Shah

Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength. — Sabaa Tahir