The Poison Eaters and Other Stories Quotes

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

“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.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Books were something that happened to readers. Readers were the victims of books.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Let her alone,' said the enkanto, 'or I will curse you blind, lame, and worse.'
The old man laughed. 'I'm a curse breaker, fool.'
The elf grabbed one of the Jim Beam bottles from the table and slammed it down, so that he was holding a jagged glass neck. The elf smiled a very thin smile. 'Then I won't bother with magic.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“When you don't know what you're searching for,” he says, “you have to look absolutely everywhere.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“It is my belief that books are living things.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“It was readers that needed to be protected, he thought. Books were something that happened to readers. Readers were the victims of books.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“He thinks of Elienad, lying beneath tables, listening to the inflections of lies. Watching the hesitations, the gestures, the tensed muscles. Learning a language the king was unaware he even spoke.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“But books feel real. Surely they must seem more real to you than anyone. They can hurt you. They can break your heart.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Summer was supposed to be the best part of the year, but so far Nikki's summer sucked. It sucked hard. It sucked like a vacuum that got hold of the drapes.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“If there is nothing but this;" Roiben said. "If we are to be shadows, changeless and forgotten, we will have to dine on these memories for the rest of our days. Don't you want a few more moments to chew over?”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Everything's better when you say it in Latin.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“LET ME TELL YOU something about unicorns—they're faeries and faeries aren't to be trusted. Read your storybooks. But maybe you can't get past the rainbows and pastel crap. That's your problem.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“I have no idea what to say to him. “The Latin Club is totally evil,” I blurt.

“The Latin Club?”

I can understand why he’s confused.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“After all the humiliations I have suffered, all the things I have done for my mistresses at their commands, here I am in a dirty human restaurant, serving coffee to fools. For Kaye. Because I am free to. Because I think it would please her. Because I think it would make her laugh.'
'It's definitely going to make her laugh,' Corny said.
'Thus I am saved from my own grim self,' Roiben said, shrugging his shoulders, a small smile lifting his mouth.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“In the mornings, her roommates Ruth and Val (if she's not staying with her boyfriend) and Corny (who sleeps in their walk-in closet, although he calls it 'the second bedroom') step over them.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Everything is soon, but nothing is nownownow.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“La lala la. that's part of the song. I don't remember it all right now, but it's okay. Cally remembers the rest. So we can go back to the hill soonsoonsoon. La la. When our bellies are big as moons. Then Bucan Jack will play his fiddle and there'll be nettle wine and the Queen will ask me to tell this story a hundred hundred times.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Of course I like books!' Justin said, looking up. He didn't know how to explain. He'd started library school to get Linda to Sandlin, but he actually liked it. It felt good to carefully organize the books so that other people would know what they were getting themselves into. 'I've always liked books. I just don't trust them.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“That's smart,' Justin said, thinking of Theseus picking his way through the Minotaur's lair, unwinding Ariadne's string behind him. Thinking of how his heart had pounded when he was lost in the stacks. It wasn't just smart, it was clever, even classical. He wished he'd thought of it.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Lyle?” Rafe asked. “Do you remember me?”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“It hadn't made sense. He wouldn't accept it. He wouldn't go home.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“It's genius,” he says, “but definitely evil genius.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“When it was his turn to talk, he told stories. He told me ones I knew, old stories, and he told me old-sounding ones I had never heard.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Let me tell you something about unicorns—they're faeries and faeries aren't to be trusted.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“She knew she should run. She'd beaten him and if she stayed any longer, he would surely put a curse on her. But she didn't move.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“Come on,” he said, reaching for her.

” Leave me alone,” she managed to say, stumbling back. The enkanto caught her before she fell, supporting her with his good arm.

” Let her alone,” said the enkanto, “or I will curse you blind, lame, and worse."

The old man laughed. “I'm a curse breaker, fool."

The elf grabbed one of the Jim Beam bottles from the table and slammed it down, so that he was holding a jagged glass neck. The elf smiled a very thin smile. “Then I won't bother with magic.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“She stumbled along, knocking into a man in a wide straw hat who was running down the aisle of vendors. When he caught hold of her, she saw that his eyes were green as grass.

"You,” she said, her voice syrup-slow. She stumbled and fell on her hands and knees. People were shouting at each other, but that wasn't so bad because at least no one was making her get up. Her necklace had fallen in the dirt beside her. She forced herself to close her hand over it.

The elf pushed the mananambal, saying something that she couldn't quite understand because all the words seemed to slur together. The old man shoved back and then, grabbing the enkanto's arm at the wrist, bit down with his golden tooth.

The elf gasped in pain and brought down his fist on the old man's head, knocking him backwards. The bitten arm hung limply from the elf's side.

Tomasa struggled to her feet, fighting off the thickness that threatened to overwhelm her. Something was wrong. The potion vender had done this to her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

The mananambal grinned, his tooth glinting in the floodlights.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“They're fickle as cats and twice as cruel. You know the tales. They'll steal your heart if you let them and if you don't, they'll curse you for your good sense. They're night things—spirits—and don't care for the day. They don't like gold, either. It reminds them of the sun.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

“His smile said that she'd given the wrong answer.”
― Holly Black, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories