117 Quotes & Sayings By Holly Black

I need you to be happy. I need one of us to be happy. Holly Black

Telling Sam and Daneca feels like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath. It hurts. Holly Black

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. Holly Black

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

One fine day, in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other. They pulled out their swords and shot one another. One deaf cop, on the beat heard the noise, and came and shot the two dead boys. Holly Black

I’ve stripped my life down, ” he told me. “I don’t need much. I have all the company I want to keep right in here.” He shot himself in the head with his fingers. “People don’t understand about the need to live simply. They make appointments all day. They even schedule their own deaths. The first time they’ll have freedom to really be themselves is when they no longer exist. But up here, there’s nothing but me and the sky. A million billion stars. Holly Black

Oh- and grab the plastic bag over by my suitcase." I slug down the last of the coffee and get up. The bag contains panty hose. I put them on her desk." They're for you."" You want me to look homeless, desperate, but also kind of fabulous? Holly Black

The inside is packed with people. Lots of them crowding the bar, passing drinks back for people to carry to tables. A bunch of guys are pouring shots of vodka." To Zacharov! " one toasts." To open hearts and open bars! " calls another." And open legs, " says Anton. Holly Black

Crippled things are always more beautiful. It's the flaw that brings out beauty. Holly Black

Anyone who offers their heart on a silver platter deserves what they get. Holly Black

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

Adventuring turned out to be boring. Zach thought back to all the fantasy books he'd read where a team of questers traveled overland, and realized a few things. First he'd pictured himself with a loyal steed that would have done most of the walking, so he hadn't anticipated the blister forming on his left heel or the tiny pebble that seemed to have worked its way under his sock, so that even when he stripped off his sneaker he couldn't find it. He hadn't thought about how hot the sun would be either. When he put together his bunch of provisions, he never thought about bringing sunblock. Aragorn never wore sunblock. Taran never wore sunblock. Percy never wore sunblock. But despite all that precedent for going without, he was pretty sure his nose would be lobster-red the next time he looked in the mirror. He was thirsty, too, something that happened a lot in books, but his dry throat bothered him more than it had ever seemed to bother any character. And, unlike in books where random brigands and monsters jumped out just when things got unbearably dull, there was nothing to fight except for the clouds of gnats, several of which Zach was pretty sure he'd accidentally swallowed. Holly Black

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

I thought of how proud he was when he took the marks- cutting the skin of his throat in a long slash and then packing it with ashes until keloid scars rose up. He called it his second smile. Holly Black

You and your sister are very dear to each other. To show your regard, you give each other lovely bouquets of lies. Holly Black

But I didnt do anything wrong.." Which is stupid of course, things dont happen to people because they deserve them. Holly Black

There's nothing quite as funny as someone else's misery - Cassel Sharpe Holly Black

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

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. Holly Black

Keep going' she told herself, 'Don't look back.' But she looked anyways. Holly Black

Be careful, " Aidan called from the bed. "You don't know what he might do." "We all know what you'd do, though, don't we? Holly Black

Are you sure?" Aidan asked, "Gavriel's still a vampire." "He warned me about you and about them. He didn't have to. I'm not going to repay that by-" she hesitated, then frowned. "What did you call him?" "That's his name, " Aidan sighed, "Gavriel. The other vampires, while they were tying me to the bed, they said his name." "Oh." With a final tug she pulled the blanked free and tossed it over to 'Gavriel . Holly Black

I don't want to be a vampire' she told herself. But in her dreams, she kind of did. Holly Black

I'm sorry, ' she said to each of the dead as she unzipped and unfastened their things, 'I'm sorry Courtney. I'm sorry Marcus. I'm sorry Rachel. I'm sorry Jon. I'm sorry I'm alive and you're dead. I'm sorry I was asleep. I'm sorry I didn't save you and now I'm taking your things. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Holly Black

You said you were allowed to lose it, ' some part of her reminded herself. 'Not yet, not yet. Holly Black

Behind Tana there was the sounds of splintering wood, as though something very large had hot the door. "No, " she said softly, "Oh no. No." "Leave me, " said Gavriel......"Shut up or I might, " she told him. Holly Black

In the dream, Tana's mother loved her more than anyone or anything. More than death. Holly Black

Please, Tana, please.' -lots of characters in The Coldest Girl in Coldtown Holly Black

His voice had a faint trace of an accent she couldn't place - one that made her pretty sure he was no local kid infected the night before. Holly Black

In those stories, one is often asked to do something unimaginably terrible to the creature. Cut off it's head, say. A test. Not a test of love. A test of trust. Trust lifts the spell. Holly Black

I'm not good at having friends. I mean, I can make myself useful to people. I can fit in. I get invited to parties and I can sit at any table I want in the cafeteria. But actually trusting someone when they have nothing to gain from me just doesn't make sense. All friendships are negotiations of power. Holly Black

The only way to end grief was to go through it. Holly Black

Ben was taking her through the storm of grief. He was singing her through the rage and despair. He was singing her through the terrible loneliness, because there was no way to shut off grief, no way to cast it aside or fight against it. The only way to end grief was to go through it. As she realized that, his song began to change. It grew softer, sweeter, like the morning after a long cry, when your head still hurt but your heart was no longer broken. Holly Black

I got bored, " he says. "Besides, you know what's creepier than walking around your dead brothers' apartment? Sitting alone in a hearse in front of his apartment. Holly Black

I survive at the edge of friends circles. Holly Black

He must have been handsome when he was alive and was handsome still, although made monstrous by his pallor and her awareness of what he was. His mouth looked soft, his cheekbones as sharp as blades, and his jaw curved, giving him an off-kilter beauty. His black hair a mad forest of dirty curls. Holly Black

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? Holly Black

That was seven years ago. The doctors told her father the memory would fade, like the big messy scar on her arm, but neither ever did. Holly Black

He let out a hiss of pain, then smiled that crooked, sheepish smile he always fell back on when he was caught doing something bad. "Sorry. I-I didn't mean to. I just- I've been lying here for hours, thinking about blood. Holly Black

His wax-white skin was cool to the touch when she brushed his neck to find the knot of cloth. She'd never been this close to a vampire, never realized what it would be like to be so near to someone who didn't breathe, who could be as still as any statue. His chest neither rose not fell. Her hands shook. Holly Black

Better to leave him with the memory of their being a pair of monsters, wrapped in each other's arms. Holly Black

Magic gives you a lot of choices, " Grandad says. "Most of them are bad. Holly Black

It’s just that you go so crazy being alone like that. Sometimes he’d forget my water or food and I’d cry and cry and cry.” She stops talking and looks out the window. “I would try to tell myself stories to pass the time. Fairy tales. Parts of books. But they got used up. Holly Black

Can't get away from your own self. Holly Black

We labor under so many illusions about ourselves until we're stripped bare. Being infected, being a vampire, it's always you. Maybe it's more you than ever before. You, distilled. You, boiled down like a sauce. But it's you as you always were, deep down inside. Holly Black

He had read lots of stories where heroes succeeded in spite of long odds, where they accomplished a task that everyone else had failed at. He wondered for the first time about all the people who'd gone before those heroes, about whether they'd been at each other's throats, before everything had gone wrong. He wondered if there was a point where they realized they weren't going to make it, weren't going to beat those long odds--that in the legend that would follow, they were going to be the nameless people that failed. Holly Black

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

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

Kiss my ass Rath Roiben Rye Holly Black

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

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

Her tragedy, if she had one, was to be as normal and average as any child ever born. Holly Black

Some things exist whether you believe in them or not Holly Black

Lie until even you believe it - that's the real secret of lying Holly Black

The most important thing for any con artist is never to think like a mark. Marks think they can get something for nothing. Marks think they can get what they don’t deserve and could never deserve. Marks are stupid and pathetic and sad. Marks think they’re going to go home one night and have the girl they’ve loved since they were a kid suddenly love them back. Marks forget that whenever something’s too good to be true, that’s because it’s a con. Holly Black

Tana would sit near the door to the basement with fingers in her ears, tears and snot running down her face as she cried and cried and cried. And little Pearl would toddle up, crying, too. They cried while they ate their cereal, cried while they watched cartoons, and cried themselves to sleep at night, huddled together in Tana's little bed. 'Make her stop' Pearl said, but Tana couldn't. Holly Black

There’s a tipping point with lies, a point where you’ve said something so many times that it feels truer than the truth. Holly Black

I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good. Holly Black

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. Sometimes I actually think it makes the wanting worse. Holly Black

Don't know. Don't care. I'm hopping on a bus and going until I can't go any farther. Until I find a place that feels like home.' He's quiet for a long time. 'How will you know what home feels like?' It hangs in the air between us, as frozen as our breaths. I don't have an answer. Holly Black

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

You're yourself, " Tana said, grinning. "More purely yourself than anyone I know. And if you can't see who that is anymore, then see yourself the way I see you. Holly Black

Who cares about a test? There will be a million more quizzed in your life. Holly Black

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

My view of writing "Coldest Girl in Coldtown" was to take every single thing that I loved from every vampire book I had ever read and dump it into one book--everything I like--trying to evoke some of the decadence… Vampires are a high-class monster: They want to dress up. They want to drink a lot of absinthe, or force their victims to drink a lot of absinthe. They have big parties and have elegant rituals. I think that's a thing we associate with vampires--they are the royalty of our monsters. We expect them to be rich, we expect them to be well-dressed. I wanted to have some of that be true because I like it, and have some of it not be true because it's kind of weird. I wanted to put in the idea of infection, which I was really interested in and which was a big feature of the vampire books I read growing up. And, the fear and desire for infection--the way in which our urge towards loving vampires is nihilistic. Our fear of them is our survival instincts kicking in. Holly Black

I really love folklore. I had read a lot of faerie folklore that informed the books I wrote. I also really love vampire folklore; my eighth grade research paper was on [it]. [With this project, ] it was really helpful to think about the way you can use language. When you're writing about faeries, you can't call anyone "fey"; there are certain words that become forbidden because they're actualized in what faeries do. When you write about vampires, you could think the same way about things like the word "red" or "hunger"--it's interesting to think of the ways that the words have double meanings, or different meanings that shifted. Holly Black

When Tana was six, vampires were Muppets, endlessly counting, or cartoon villains in black cloaks with red polyester lining. Holly Black

The Anne Rice books are a lot about infection. I read "Interview With the Vampire" a million times when I was in seventh and eighth grade. Also, [writing Gavriel's backstory] definitely came from those books: I sat down and reread them all and thought a lot about… the way in which vampirism is pushing away from humanity in interesting ways, and creating something new from humanity. I imprinted on those books pretty hard. Tanith Lee's "Sabella or the Blood Stone" was a big inspiration. I absolutely loved her books; when I was a kid, I wrote many bad Tanith Lee pastiches. Susie McKee Charnas' "The Vampire Tapestry." Poppy Z. Brite's "Lost Souls." Nancy Collins' "Sunglasses After Dark, " which sounds like the most '80s title ever. It's about a vampire named Sonja Blue, and she goes around killing vampires. She's the only vampire who's half-alive. It's a really fun, blood-filled romp. It's very "Blade" before "Blade"--with a lady. Holly Black

Her screams spiraled up into the night air Holly Black

So you'll teach me?" Val asked. Ravus nodded agin. "I will make you as terrible as you desire."" I don't want to be - , " she started, but he held up his hand." I know you're very brave, " he said." Or st Holly Black

No trouble ever got fixed late at night, " he said. "Midnight is for regrets. Holly Black

She swallowed his blood, a dark vintage from some forgotten cellar. She felt like Persephone in Hades, pomegranate seeds bursting against her teeth, juice rolling on her tongue, and the more she had, the more she hungered. Holly Black

Occasionally, there are battles in the sky. One likes to imagine the angels are always triumphant. One does not like to think of the ancient and terrible scales balancing the infernal and divine as wobbling back and forth. Tilting freely, to and fro. One does not like to think that sometimes it is the angel that falls. Holly Black

I wonder about death, I who may never know it. It looks much like ecstacy, the way they open their mouths as they drown, the way their fingers dig into your skin. Their eyes are wide and startled and they trash in your hands as though with an excess of passion. Holly Black

You can always count on your family to love you. And to betray you. And then to feel guilty about it. Holly Black

I wonder if he really could rationalize what I did to him, really treat betrayal like the slight transgression of a recalcitrant business partner. I wonder if I hurt him. If he can rationalize what I did to him, it’s easy to imagine how he rationalized what he did to me. Holly Black

I thought you were her knight, but you have become only her woodsman--taking little girls into the forest to cut out their hearts. Holly Black

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty. Holly Black

Our tragedy is that we forget it might be someone else first. Holly Black

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

... on the lawn one late summer day, her pale hair tangled because she'd cry if anyone tried to brush it, spinning around and around until she got so dizzy she fell in a pile of bare feet and dandelions and sundress. Holly Black

The hardest thing about being wanted was the hardest thing about wanting–wanting badly enough that it gave you stomachache, wanting in a way that was partly about kissing and partly about swallowing whole, the way a snake gulps down a mouse or the Big Bad Wolf gulps down Red Riding Hood–wanting turned someone you felt like you knew into a stranger. Whether that person was your brother’s best friend or a sleeping prince in a glass prison or a girl who kissed you at a party, the moment you wanted more than just touching your mouth to theirs they became terrifying and you became terrified. Holly Black

I'm afraid my voice is going to break. I am afraid she is going to hear how much this hurts. Holly Black