[The king] would assure me, a long time later, that he had said "I love you" to only three women. "One of them is you," he told me. - Farah Pahlavi

I found the king extremely attractive, naturally endowed as he was with all the intellectual qualities a woman could wish for in the man close to her heart. His gentle, serious look, which could still be indulgent and warm, and his lovely smile touched me deeply. And there were other details I liked: the way he held his head, his long eyelashes, which I found unutterably romantic, his hands. Yes, I was secretly won over, charmed by him.

I never thought that a person's worth came from birth or wealth, and much later when I was queen, and then in exile, I had ample proof of it.

I shall never forget the tears in the eyes of the shah the day we left Iran. In that deserted runway and in the aircraft, my only thought was whether it was the last time or would [we ever] return.