1) I push him aside; I need to get to Captain, whose face has turned a horrible yellow brown. There’s a strange film over his eyes, deadening eyes once bright in their darkness. "Mariane, I’m sorry," he says. "I didn’t bring your Danny home."
I rest my head on his shoulder, and we stay that way for a while. When I look up, he is crying. "I am a human being," he will tell me later. "I couldn’t control my pain. I knew what you were expecting from me. I have promised this thing to you. And I was unable to keep my word."
I let go of Captain, and as I pass the frozen crowd, I tell them, "Leave me alone," and head for my bedroom. I slam the door, and with all my might, I cry out. I have never screamed like this before. I can feel that I’m screaming, but the sound that rips out of me is alien, as if everything is coming out of me. I sound like an animal caught in a bone-crushing trap. (Mariane Pearl 188)

2) Desperation and frustration are the key motives of terrorism. (Enders, Sandler 245)

3) A Jihadi fights with himself to overcome his own limitations in order to contribute to society at large. (Mariane Pearl 51)

4) The process of radicalization that generates small, local, self-organized groups in a hostile habitat but linked through the Internet also leads to a disconnected global network, the leaderless jihad. (Sageman143)

5) Why is there always this suspicion that reporters are spies? (Mariane Pearl 23)

6) That night, Asra stretches out beside me, and we begin from that moment a habit that will continue for weeks to come -- we sleep side by side. Asra can watch over me, and I can watch over her. Two women sharing a bed. The men around us find it intriguing at first. Then they find they are comforted by it, because by this point, everyone feels alone -- and no one should be.
(Mariane Pearl 111)

7) Poverty is one of the most popular explanations of terrorism. The theory is that economic deprivation breeds resentment, which in turn leads to terrorism. (Sageman 48)

8) People often see peace as the simple absence of war, but it is instead the result of courageous actions taken to initiate a dialogue between civilizations. Both Danny and I saw our profession as a way to contribute to the dialogue, to allow voices on all sides to be heard, and to bear witness. (Mariane Pearl 59)

9) If hope is our most powerful weapon, fear is the greatest threat the terrorists wield against us. Fear paralyzes you, and I cannot afford that. (Mariane Pearl 94)

10) Al Qaeda is behind Danny’s abduction. Casting a blind eye on the world, Al Qaeda goes after symbols: the World Trade Center and now an American Jewish journalist. They were three thousand, and he is but one man. The hatred, though, is one and the same. (Mariane Pearl 144)

11) Our individual lives are like waves produced from the great ocean that is the universe. The emergence of a wave is life, and its abatement is death. This rhythm repeats eternally. (Mariane Pearl 190)

12) This is Danny’s way of facing the world: with trust. (Mariane Pearl 9)

13) It’s incredible how much you can love somebody you haven’t even met yet. (quote from Danny about his child) (Mariane Pearl 10)

14) The global Islamist terrorist interpretation appeals to Muslims because it resonates with their personal experiences of discrimination and economic exclusion. (Sageman 163)

15) Here is the same old hatred, the kind that makes you wonder if humanity will ever draw the lessons of its own history. Still, Danny and I refuse to let it defeat us in our work as journalists. We see ourselves as tightrope walkers, careful and insistent in our quest to bridge the world. In his work, Danny struggles to keep free of dogma and allegiance. It’s not easy to remain impartial, but it sharpens Danny’s vision and independence. He doesn’t represent a country or a flag, just the pursuit of truth. He is here to hold up a mirror and force people to look at themselves. What better way is there to respect humanity. (page 29) (Mariane Pearl 29)

16) In the marriage contract we wrote together and read at our wedding in 1999, we proclaimed, "We promise to discover new things, places, and people together, to view our life together as a work of literature." (Mariane Pearl 41)

17) War held no appeal for Danny or for me. What interested us was the challenge presented by peace. People often see peace as the simple absence of war, but it is instead the result of courageous actions taken to initiate a dialogue between civilizations. Both Danny and I saw our profession as a way to contribute to the dialogue, to allow voices on all sides, to be heard, and to bear witness. (Mariane Pearl 59)

18) One sentence from Khan sears itself into my brain: "They would consider him to be a high-value hostage; i.e., one they would want to keep alive." I have never believed that Danny is not alive.
(Mariane Pearl 96)

19) I can feel everyone study me with alarm. Ah, I think, they expect me to go into labor right here and now. Instead, I start to smile, because in one of the next photos, Danny is smiling too. It is obvious, even though his head is down. And then I see it -- in one photo, his fingers form a V for victory, in another, he’s giving his captors the finger. You can sense his quiet triumph, the one you feel when someone tries to silence you but your message gets through anyway. I was right: Danny has been fighting his fear. He’s telling me he’s not defeated and that I shouldn’t be, either. (Mariane Pearl 105)

20) We realized then that modern Jewish identity, as it is forged in homes and schools, is in dire need of a role model and a human face to give life to Jewish values and teachings, and to connect these to relevant events in our turbulent world. We came to realize that Daniel’s face, coupled with the broad impact of his last words, could help fortify Jewish identity with the resilience needed to counter its adversaries’ attacks. We saw in this potential yet another part of Danny’s victory over his murderers: while they tried to sow fear and humiliation among Jews, Danny’s words would lead to empowerment and pride and, eventually, to a stronger more united Jewish people. (Judea and Ruth Pearl, I am Jewish xviii-xix)

21) Afterward I was asked: "Why didn’t you cry?" American audiences want you to cry, they want to see your suffering. Why? Is it that displaying your grief on TV makes it true? I was angry. "Am I feeding some real-life drama-hungry back home?" I ask Bussey. But the truth is, I was furious that nobody understood that a terrified reaction is exactly what terrorists want: they want to terrorize you. The more you show that, the happier they are. Win sympathy by being weepy? In reality, you can oppose them only with the strength they think they have taken away from you.
There is another thing: Danny might hear me; somewhere, he might be watching. I must show him that I’m okay, and that the baby is okay. I must feed him strength from my strength. I must give him hope. (Mariane Pearl 127)

22) When you are a journalist in a country like Pakistan, where you spend so much time trying to convince people you are not a spy, you aren’t helped when the company you work for announces to the world that it is collaborating with the CIA. (Mariane Pearl 152)

23) Despite the war on terror, the one certainty is that terrorism will continue as a tactic associated with conflicts. (Enders, Sandler 245)

24) They are all crying, every single one of them, the whole Goddamn team. They cry like men. No sobs, no streaks down the face. But their eyes swim in their stricken faces. I am not sure whether they cry for me -- because I refuse to acknowledge that I have lost my husband in a way none can bring himself to describe -- or for Danny and what he went through. (Mariane Pearl 189)