Holly Black Quotes

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“Remember that I’m still a monster. I can listen to you scream and cry and beg and I still won’t let you out.”

“You are the best kind of killer, Cassel Sharpe, the kind that never has blood on his hands. The kind that never has to sicken at the sight of what he's done, or come to like it too much.”

“Instead, it just reminded her that sometimes there were no good choices.”

“It hurts to think of her, but I can't stop. It ought to hurt.

After all, hell is supposed to be hot.”

“She took a deep breath, "Last chance. Are you in need of rescuing?"
His expression turned very strange, almost as if she'd struck him, "Yes," he said finally.”

“It’s sweet. All this trouble for a kitty.”

“You want me to say something? Okay. Sometimes I think I am what you made me. And sometimes I don’t know who I am at all. And either way I’m not happy.”

“You're like this leopard who's pretending to be a house cat.”

“I don’t know,” Call said. He was starting to worry that there weren’t any good guys. Just people with longer or shorter Evil Overlord lists.”

“This, the language of deception, we both understand. We were born to it, along with the curses.”

“He wondered whether growing up was learning that most stories turned out to be lies.”

“Carney is like a graveyard where everyone already owns their plots and has built houses on top of them.”

“Lie until even you believe it - that's the real secret of lying”

“Nobody ever really sees me the way I am, underneath everything. But she did. She does.”

“Yesterday when we went over the plan again and again, I never thought about Grandad showing up. Because I'm an idiot, basically--an idiot with poor planning skills. Of course he's here. Where else would he be?

Seriously, what else could go wrong?”

“The Lady or The Tiger,'
…
'My lady, the tiger”

“Boys never believe I can beat them, she told me back then. But I always win in the end.”

“It's starting to sink in," Corny said. "I can almost look at you without wanting to bang my head against the wall.”

“Great. Lookout. I'm a lookout. Another thing to put on my college applications. What do I do if I see someone?"
Val looked back. "I'm not sure, actually.”

“Little mouse," a voice said through the keyhole. "Don't you know the more you wriggle, the greater the cat's delight?”

“I want you and I hate wanting things and I especially hate admitting I want them.”

“I will guard you from Death, for I have no fear of him.”

“It makes you a different person, to not have a past. It eats away at who you are, until what’s left is all construct, all artifice.”

“My head is pounding. I wish the mints were aspirin.”

“You can't go around making plans that have you getting killed as a by-product. Eventually one of them is going to.”

“I know how to be the witness to her grief. I don't know how to be this kind of villain.”

“Farewell, Father," she said. He fell back upon his chair, choking. She laughed, not with mirth or even mockery, but something that was closer to a sob. "You crafted me so sharp, I cut even myself.”

“Maybe it was that nearly everyone else was dead and she felt a little bit dead too, but she figured that even a vampire deserved to be saved. Maybe she ought to leave him, but she wasn't going to.”

“As he bent closer, he realized they were words -- words his wife had carved into the cave ice with the last of her dying strength. As he read them, he felt them like three hard blows in the stomach.
KILL THE CHILD”

“I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can’t. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.”

“Sometimes,” Sam says, “I can’t tell when you’re lying.”

“I never lie,” I lie.”

“It feels like the whole world has turned upside down. There aren't any more rules.

Hey,' I say to Sam, because if the world's gone crazy, then I guess I can do whatever I want. "Guess what? I'm a worker.”

“I thought you needed to be tougher. But I've been thinking that protecting somebody by hurting them before someone else gets the chance isn't the kind of protecting that anybody wants.”

“She didn't know how much she'd been hoping that he still loved her, until she felt how much it hurt to realize he didn't.”

“There is nothing for her beyond those gates," Gavriel said. "Do you think to bring her along like a talisman to remind you of your humanity? Or do you think sharing your damnation will lighten the burden of it?”

“When we turn, is there something shoved inside of us or is it more that something inside of us has been released?”

“I'm going to take off your gag. And if you try to bite me or grab me or anything, I'll hit you with this thing as hard as I can as many times as I can. Understood?”

“He runs to the sink to spit it out. I grin. There’s nothing quite as funny as someone else’s misery.”

“Gavriel closed his eyes, sooty lashes brushing his cheek. "I'll stay with you."


"What? No," she said automatically. "No! That's crazy."


"I'm crazy," he reminded her.”

“Mirroring behavior. When a mark takes a drink from his water glass, so should you. When he smiles, so should you. Keep it subtle, rather than creepy, and it’s a good technique.”

“The row of dolls watched her impassively from the bookshelf, their tea party propriety almost certainly offended.”

“I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen.”

“Don’t.” She looks directly into my eyes. After a month of being forced to avoid her, I feel stripped bare by her gaze. “You can be as much of a charming bastard as you want, but you’re never going to bullshit your way into my heart again.”

“If you keep it," Daneca says, "he'll have his claws in you."
Everyone has their claws in me. Everyone.”