Top 500 Holly Black Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “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

252. “I’ve wanted this and feared it, and now that it’s happening, I don’t know how I will ever want anything else.”

— Holly Black

253. “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

254. “If you want my advice,” he says slowly, “love doesn’t grow well, fed on pain. Grant me that I know that at least.”

— Holly Black

255. “She looks honestly upset, but then, I’ve learned that I can’t read her. The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

259. “There you are,” Cardan says as I take my place beside him. “How has the night been going for you? Mine has been full of dull conversation about how my head is going to find itself on a spike.”

— Holly Black

260. “Cardan grins at me as though we’ve been great friends all our lives. I forgot how charming he can be – and how dangerous that is.”

— Holly Black

261. “She sat in the dew-damp grass and ripped up clumps of it, tossing them in the air and feeling vaguely guilty about it. Some gnome ought to pop out of the tree and scold her for torturing the lawn.”

— 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. “I stand in front of my window and imagine myself a fearless knight, imagine myself a witch who hid her heart in her finger and then chopped her finger off.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— 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. “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

270. “Cardan had trusted Nicasia not to hurt him, which was ridiculous, since he well knew that everyone hurts one another and that the people you loved hurt you the most grievously.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

272. “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

273. “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

274. “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

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

— Holly Black

276. “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

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

281. “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

282. “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

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

285. “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

286. “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

287. “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

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

— Holly Black

289. “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

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

— Holly Black

291. “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

292. “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

293. “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

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

296. “Legends need not concern themselves with something as small as happiness.”

— Holly Black

297. “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

298. “I can feel the moment he gives in and gives up, pulling me to him despite the threat of the knife. He kisses me hard, with a kind of devouring desperation, fingers digging into my hair. Our mouths slide together, teeth over lips over tongues. Desire hits me like a kick to the stomach. It’s like fighting, except what we’re fighting for is to crawl inside each other’s skin.”

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black

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

— Holly Black