“Because happiness itself is a mythical construct, a dream you humans tell yourselves to get through each day. It is the moon, and you, like the sun, pursue it relentlessly, chasing it around and around, getting nowhere.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“Even a thief may have honor, and even a jinni may have a heart.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“The universe sings a deep, eternal song, sound in waves, in deep sighs, in whispers, in swirling chords and rising, falling tones. The music of the worlds, weaving in a pattern that is both chaos and order, both beauty and terror, without beginning, without end.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“Change is a part of life, son,” says Grandpa. “But
you want to know two things that never change?”
“Death and taxes?” Grandma asks.
“No,” Grandpa says. “Sweet tea and snap peas.”
Source: Sweet Tea & Snap Peas
“Get control of yourself, Zahra!
My name isn’t Zahra. I am Smoke-on-the-Wind, Curl-of-the-Tiger’s-Tail, Girl-Who-Gives-the-Stars-Away.
He loves you!
He is just a mortal. Just a boy, a moment in time that will soon pass.
His name is Aladdin.
I have known a thousand and one like him. I will know a thousand and one more. He is nothing.
He is everything.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“Love is a path lined with roses." I say bitterly. "But it leads to a cliff's edge and all who follow it tumble to their doom. You will not find your happiness there.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“This has been the great lesson of my long life: To love is to destroy.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
He takes my face in his hands. “I’m not. I’m not sorry I met you. I’m not sorry I fell in love with you. I have no regrets, Zahra, and neither should you. I love you.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish
“Seriously? she hisses. You're literally putting your dick in the leader of a foreign state, who is a man, at the biggest political event before the election, in a hotel full of reporters, in a city full of cameras, in a race close enough to fucking hinge on some bullshit like this, like a manifestation of my fucking stress dreams, and you're asking me not to tell the president about it?”
Source: Red, White & Royal Blue
“Use your wish,” I whisper to Aladdin, opening my eyes. “Please.”
“If I do,” he replies softly, “I’ll lose you.”
Source: The Forbidden Wish