Holly Black

Writer

1971-11-10

Quotes by Holly Black

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

  Read quote

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

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

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

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

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

  Read quote

• She'd always been a little contemptuous of beauty, as though it was something you had to trade away some other vital thing for.

  Read quote

• They wore their strange beauty like war paint.

  Read quote

• We all wind up drawn to what we're afraid of, drawn to try to find a way to make ourselves safe from a thing by crawling inside of it, by loving it, by becoming it.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.

  Read quote

• 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?

  Read quote

• What an author doesn't know could fill a book.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• I will guard you from Death, for I have no fear of him.

  Read quote

• People are fragile. They die of mistakes, of overdoses, of sickness. But mostly they die of Death.

  Read quote

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

  Read quote