Holly Black > Quotes

“Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“You are the only thing I have that is neither duty nor obligation, the only thing I chose for myself. The only thing I want. ”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“Once someone's hurt you, it's harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn't stop you from wanting them.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Yeah, the whole family knows. It's no big deal. One night at dinner I said, 'Mom, you know the forbidden love that Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too.' It was easier for her to understand that way.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“We are, largely, who we remember ourselves to be. That's why habits are so hard to break. If we know ourselves to be liars, we expect not to tell the truth. If we think of ourselves as honest, we try harder.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Those who really love you don't mean to hurt you and if they do, you can't see it in their eyes but it hurts them too.”
― Holly Black

“She says that what you did was a cry for help."

"It was," I say. "That's why I was yelling 'Heeeelp!' I don't really go in for subtlety.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“What an author doesn't know could fill a book.”
― Holly Black, Lucinda's Secret

“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“You carried my heart in your hands tonight," he said. "But I have felt as if you carried it long before that.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“I can't trust the people I care about not to hurt me. And I'm not sure I can trust myself not to hurt them, either.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“She knew what it felt like to tremble like that before touching someone-desire so acute that it became despair.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“Changing is what people do when they have no options left.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“He's the kind of liar who totally forgets what he told you the last time, but he believes every single lie with such conviction that sometimes he can convince you of it.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Kaye: You know what the sun looks like?
Janet: No, What?
Kaye: Like he slit his wrists in a bathtub and the blood is all over the water.
Janet: That's gross, Kaye.
Kaye: And the moon is just watching. She's just watching him die. She must have driven him to it.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“No," said Luis, "You can't date the Lord of the Night Court."
"Well, I'm not, he dumped me."
"You can't get dumped by the lord of the night court."
"Oh, yes, you can. You so completely can.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“This is the part in the movie where that guy says, "Zombies? What zombies?" just before they eat his brains. I don't want to be that guy.”
― Holly Black, Kin

“The more powerful you become, the more others will find ways to master you. They'll do it through those you love and those you hate. They will find the bit and the bridle that fits your mouth and will make you yield. ”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“And if I wanted to kill myself, I wouldn't throw myself off a roof. And if I was going to throw myself off a roof, I would put on some pants before I did it.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“I would remain nearer you for what time there is."

"Gone in one faerie sigh," she quoted.

Leather-clad fingers brushed over her short hair, rested on her cheek. "I can hold my breath.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“They say that nameless things change constantly—that names fix them in place like pins.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“No trouble ever got fixed late at night," he said. "Midnight is for regrets.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“You have a real talent for getting your ass kicked.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Flattery will get you everywhere," Sam says, "Except, apparently, off a roof.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“whatever you love, that is your weakness”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“Can't get away from your own self.”
― Holly Black, Lucinda's Secret

“We got it." Val grinned and lifted her fist. "Wonder twin powers activate!"
Ruth grinned back, knocking her fist into Val's. "Shape of two fucking lunatics.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“I need you to be happy. I need one of us to be happy.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“Baby," she says in a harsh whisper, "in this world, lots of people will try to grind you down. They need you to be small so they can be big. You let them think whatever they want, but you make sure you get yours. You get yours.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“I like him, he thought in horror... shit. I like him.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“If I'm not a murderer," asked Corny, "how come I keep killing people?”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“Life's full of opportunities to make crappy decisions that feel good. And after the first one, the rest get a whole lot easier.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“People said that video games were bad because they made you numb to death, made you register entrails splattering across a screen as a sign of success. In that moment, Val thought that the real problem with games was that the player was suppossed to try everything. If there was a cave, you went in it. If there was a mysterious stranger, you talked to him. If there was a map, you followed it. But in games, you had a hundred million billion lives and Val only had this one.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“You both ... you both saved me?"

"Come on," said Luis. "You make it sound like it was hard for Val to go to the Unseelie Court, strike a deal with Roiben, challenge Mabry to a duel, win back your heart, and then get back here during rush hour.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“Marks forget that whenever something's too good to be true, that's because it's a con.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“So what are you really wearing?" The words left her mouth before she could consider them. She winced.
He didn't seem to mind; in fact, he flashed her one of his brief smiles. "And if I said nothing at all?"
"Then I would point out that sometimes, if you look at something out of the corner of your eye, you can see right through glamour," she returned.
That brought surprised laughter. "What a relief to us both then that I am actually wearing exactly what you saw me in this afternoon. Although one might point out that in that outfit, your last concern should be my modesty.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“We have about three hours of homework a night, and our evening study period is only two hours, so if you want to spend the break at half-past-nine not freaking out, you have to cram. I'm not sure that the picture of the wide-eyed zombie girl biting out the brains of senior douchebag James Page is part of Sam's homework, bit if it is, his physics teacher is awesome.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Magic gives you a lot of choices," Grandad says. "Most of them are bad.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“Pet the cat dude," says Sam. "She brought you a present. She wants you to tell her how badass she is."


"You are a tiny tiny killing machine." Daneca coos.


"What's she doing?" I ask.


"Purring!" says Daneca. She sounds delighted. "Good kitty. Who's an amazing killing machine? That's right. You are! You are a brutal brutal tiny lion! Yes, you are.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“I have no memory of climbing the stairs up to the roof. I don't even know how to get where I am, which is a problem since I'm going to have to get down, ideally in a way that doesn't involve dying.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“I envy what I fear and hate what I envy.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters: and Other Stories

“Holly: Seriously, you don't like unicorns? What kind person doesn't like unicorns?

Justine: What kind of a person doesn't like zombies? What have zombies ever done to you?

Holly: Zombies shamble. I disapprove of shambling. And they have bits that fall off. You never see a unicorn behaving that way.

Justine: I shamble. Bits fall off me all the time: hair, skin cells. Are you saying you disapprove of me?”
― Holly Black, Zombies Vs. Unicorns

“You didn't think I really liked you? Do you think I really like you now?"
He turned toward her, uncertainty in his face."You did go quite a lot of effort to be having this conversation, but... I don't want to read too much of what I hope into that."
Val stretched out beside him, resting her head in the crook of his arm. "What do you hope?"
He pulled her close, hands careful not to touch her wounds as they wrapped around her. "I hope that you feel for me as I do for you," he said, his voice like a sigh against her throat.
And how is that?" she asked, her lips so close to his jaw that she could taste the salt of his skin when she moved them.
You carried my heart in your hands tonight," he said. "But I have felt as if you carried it long before that."
She smiled and let her eyes drift closed. They lay there together, under the bridge, city lights burning outside the windows like a sky full of falling stars, as they slid off into sleep”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“The moment she was cursed, I lost her. Once it wears off- soon- she will be embarrassed to remember things that she said, things she did, things like this. No matter how solid she feels in my arms, she is made of smoke.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“I'm afraid my voice is going to break. I am afraid she is going to hear how much this hurts.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove