ttb > ttb's Quotes

“I’m a cat. We aren’t required to make sense.”
― Seanan McGuire, A Local Habitation

“I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page.”
― Nora Roberts

“You get irritated when I say I'm not angry and you get irritated when I say I am angry. I can't win."
"Because you just saying whatever you think will shut me up," he accused me.
"Aye, but it's not working."
"Argh!" was his response, and he charged on down the street.”
― Moira J. Moore, The Hero Strikes Back

“There was alliteration happening all over the place in that sentence.”
― Moira J. Moore, The Hero Strikes Back

“I have an idea," Cazio said after a moment.

"What a lonely creature it must be.”
― Greg Keyes, The Briar King

“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

“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

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

“Someone could cut through the mess in our house and look at it like one might look at rings on a tree or layers of sediment. They'd find the black-and-white hairs of a dog we had when I was six, the acid-washed jeans my mother once wore, the seven blood-soaked pillowcases from the time I skinned my knee. All our family secrets rest in endless piles.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“On the way out to the car, Philip turns to me.
“How could you be so stupid?
I shrug, stung in spite of myself.
“I thought I grew out of it.”
Philip pulls out his key fob and presses the remote to unlock his Mercedes. I slide into the passenger side, brushing coffee cups off the seat and onto the floor mat, where crumpled printouts from MapQuest soak up any spilled liquid.
“I hope you mean sleepwalking,” Philip says, “since you obviously didn’t grow out of stupid.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“I drive him to school, then I break back into Barron's house. I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen.

Then I go home and shave until my skin is as slick as any slickster's.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“I don't lie," I lied.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“Like a stage magician, the con artist misdirects suspicion. While everyone’s watching for him to pull a rabbit out of a hat, he’s actually sawing a girl in half. You think he’s doing one trick when he’s actually doing another.

You think that I’m dying, but I’m laughing at you.”
― 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

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

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

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

“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

“He looks like the good boy he's never been.”
― 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

“Sam frowns at me, suddenly serious. "You know, I thought--for most of the first year we lived together--that you were going to kill me."

That makes me nearly spit out beer, I laugh so hard.

"No, look--living with you, it's like knowing there's a loaded gun on the other side of the room. You're like this leopard who's pretending to be a house cat."

That only makes me laugh harder.

"Shut up," he says. "You might do normal stuff, but a leopard can drink milk or fall off things like a house cat. It's obvious you're not--not like the rest of us. I'll look over at you, and you'll be flexing your claws, or I don't know, eating a freshly killed antelope."

"Oh," I say. It's a ridiculous metaphor, but the hilarity has gone out of me. I thought I did a good job of fitting in--maybe not perfect, but not as bad as Sam makes it sound.

"It's like Audrey," he says, stabbing the air with a finger clearly well on his way to inebriated and full of determination to make me understand his theory. "You acted like she went out with you because you did this good job of being a nice guy."

"I am a nice guy."

I try to be.

Sam snorts. "She liked you because you scared her. And then you scared her too much.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“It's the flaw that brings out the beauty.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“I survive at the edge of friends circles.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“You're a pretty cool customer, huh?" says Agent Hunt.

"I hide my inner pain under my stoic visage."

Agent Hunt looks like he would like to put his fist through my stoic visage.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

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

“Gifts are very useful to con men. Gifts create a feeling of debt, an itchy anxiety that the recipient is eager to be rid of by repaying. So eager, in fact, that people will often overpay just to be relieved of it. A single spontaneously given cup of coffee can make a person feel obligated to sit through a lecture on a religion they don't care about. The gift of a tiny, wilted flower can make the recipient give to a charity they dislike. Gifts place such a heavy burden that even throwing away the gift doesn't remove the debt. Even if you hate coffee, even if you didn't want that flower, once you take it, you want to give something back. Most of all, you want to dismiss obligation.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“I like all the things that make you monstrous.”
― Holly Black, Valiant

“But now I wonder--what if everyone is pretty much the same and it's just a thousand small choices that add up to the person you are? No good or evil, no black and white, no inner demons or angels whispering the right answers in our ears like it's some cosmic SAT test. Just us, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day, making the best choices we can.
The thought is horrifying. If that's true, then there's no right choice. There's only choice.”
― Holly Black, Black Heart

“The laws of physics have already been violated. What happens if they decide to press charges?”
― Seanan McGuire, A Local Habitation

“Never tell anyone to be careful, never ask what that noise was, and for the love of God, never, ever say that you'll be right back." —Evelyn Baker”
― Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon