Top 500 Holly Black Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “That’s what mortal means,” I say with a sigh that I don’t have to fake. “We die. Think of us like shooting stars, brief but bright.”

— Holly Black

252. “I am not sure I sleep, but I do dream.”

— Holly Black

253. “If she was going to die, she might as well die sarcastic.”

— Holly Black

254. “You’re awful.” He said it as though he was delighted. “And the worst part is that you believe otherwise.”

— Holly Black

255. “Leaves don’t grow back onto a vine, cracked walnuts don’t fit back into their shells, and girlfriends who’ve been enchanted don’t just wake up and decide to let things slide with their terrifying exes.”

— Holly Black

256. “What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong?”

— Holly Black

257. “Neither loyalty nor love should be compelled.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

259. “A mortal had woven it, a man who, having caught sight of the Seelie queen, had spent the remainder of his short life weaving depictions of her. He had died of starvation, raw, red fingers staining the final tapestry.”

— Holly Black

260. “It’s shocking,” he says, as though he’s giving me some great compliment. “I know humans can lie, but to watch you do it is incredible. Do it again.”

— Holly Black

261. “You might beg to differ. So long as you’re begging, he doesn’t mind a bit.”

— Holly Black

262. “And if the serpent grows in monstrousness and corruption, if it poisons the land of Elfhame itself, then let me be the queen of monsters. Let me rule over that blackened land with my redcap father as a puppet by my side. Let me be feared and never again afraid.”

— Holly Black

263. “You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?”

— Holly Black

264. “They say that nameless things change constantly – that names fix them in place like pins.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

266. “Would an Evil Overlord drink the last cup of coffee in the pot? Which book would an Evil Overlord take out from the library? Was dressing in all black a definite Evil Overlord move, or a legitimate choice on laundry day?”

— Holly Black

267. “Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.”

— Holly Black

268. “Happiness isn’t something to carefully measure out in spoonfuls as though it’s medicine. I don’t need you to suffer to prove your love, and I definitely don’t need you to hide your suffering. I want to shoulder half our burden.”

— Holly Black

269. “You’re like a story that hasn’t happened yet.”

— Holly Black

270. “Cosa sarei potuta diventare se avessi smesso di preoccuparmi della morte, del dolore, di tutto? Se avessi smesso di cercare un senso di appartenenza? Invece di avere paura, sarei diventata io quella da temere.”

— Holly Black

271. “An unhappy childhood is supposed to make you grow up fast, but I still feel like a kid a lot of the time.”

— Holly Black

272. “I have, for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very much like the feeling of fear.”

— Holly Black

273. “After all, who wants to die slowly when you can die fast? Me.”

— Holly Black

274. “I take a deep breath, at home and homesick all at the same time.”

— Holly Black

275. “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

276. “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

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

— Holly Black

278. “Sam: You know what I wish? Cassel: What? Sam: That someone would covert my bed into a robot that would fight other bed robots to the death for me.”

— Holly Black

279. “The problem with cell phones is that you can’t slam them down into a cradle when you hang up. Your only option is to throw them, and if you do, they just skitter across the floor and crack their case. It’s not satisfying at all. I close my eyes and bend down to pick up the pieces.”

— Holly Black

280. “So much of winning is waiting. The other part, though, is taking the shot when it comes. Unleashing all that momentum.”

— Holly Black

281. “Wicked girl. Yet you let your sister take the brunt of my ire. That wasn’t very nice, was it?”

— Holly Black

282. “Death has his favorites, like anyone. Those who are beloved of Death will not die.”

— Holly Black

283. “Maybe the point of real friendship isn’t that you have to repay kindness, but whatever. At least I should try. As.”

— Holly Black

284. “Cardan’s gaze catches mine, and I can’t help the evil smile that pulls up the corners of my mouth. His eyes are bright as coals, his hatred a living thing, shimmering in the air between us like the air above black rocks on a blazing summer day.”

— Holly Black

285. “It was good to be hugged. Even by a monster.”

— Holly Black

286. “Except that I have no marketable skills other than swinging around a sword and making up riddles, neither of which probably pay all that well.”

— Holly Black

287. “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

288. “He stares at me as though I am a stranger, but I have never felt less like one. For the first time, we are both unmasked.”

— Holly Black

289. “The only way to end grief was to go through it.”

— Holly Black

290. “And if I never change back? If I’m not human enough anymore?” He smiled; she could feel it against her skin. “Then we’ll go hunt vampires together and you’ll drink their blood.” “The Lady or The Tiger,” she said, thinking of the drinking game she’d played at the farmhouse, thinking of the story that never ended, of a coin spinning without falling on heads or tails. “My lady, the tiger,” he told her, and got up to turn the camera back on.”

— Holly Black

291. “Hazel never cried. She was forged from iron; she never broke.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

293. “There are dog people and cat people.”

— Holly Black

294. “Poisonous jealousy thrummed through my veins.”

— Holly Black

295. “People like Aaron act all nice until suddenly they explode and banish some annoying geezer into the void.”

— Holly Black

296. “Karate-chopping ninjas in a mudslide?” Tamara gave Aaron and Call a dark look. “Could you guys try to lay low?”

— Holly Black

297. “He picked up her purse from where it rested beside her and shook it gently. “In case you were concerned. All just as you left it.” She nodded. “Thanks. Although I guess whether I’ll ever get to use that marker is pretty up in the air right now.” “You should have let me eat her in that parking lot,” Gavriel said, raising his eyebrows.”

— Holly Black

298. “I’m not even a little bit dead.”

— Holly Black

299. “She had a way of making everyone around her feel as though every impossible thing was possible.”

— Holly Black

300. “Knowledge and action are one and the same.”

— Holly Black