Quotes from Holly Black

Growing up, my mom was a painter, my best friend was a painter, my husband is a painter. For a long time I knew artists, and I didn't know any writers.

Can you write 200 words a day? 100? 50? In six months, 50 words a day is 9,000 words. That's 2-3 short stories. If you did 200 words every day, in three months that's 36,000 words. That's half a short novel.

One of the great things about writing middle-grade books is that it's really a nice break, when you're writing super intense stuff like 'Coldtown', to be able to write something a little lighter - calm down and do something different.

I revise a lot while I'm drafting, often going back to the beginning again and again to revise because I've changed massive things about the story. By the time I get to the end of a first draft, I've been through the beginning lots of times.

Writers usually don't get to pick our own covers. I know it's surprising to hear that.

Philip Sharpe was a soldier in God's army," says the minister. "Now he marches with the angels.

I haven't had a very good day. I think I might still be hung over and everyone's dead and my root beer's gone.

He looks like the good boy he's never been.

I thought weirdness was a good thing. I don't mean that defensively, either. I thought it was something to be cultivated.

Marks forget that whenever something's too good to be true, that's because it's a con.

Instead, it just reminded her that sometimes there were no good choices.

I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can't. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.

He was as honest as any criminal can hope to be.

One of my favorite things in books is watching someone make the mistake. You know it's going to happen. You keep thinking: 'Don't do it!' But of course they're going to do it. It's riveting. You learn through them that it's okay. It's the ecstatic fall, where you watch someone make that terrible decision, and there's such pleasure in it.

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

'Twilight' passed like a fever through the sophisticated reader and the unsophisticated reader alike. People devoured those books in single sittings, over weekends, with a kind of raw intensity that is rare.

I'm not a fast writer, and I find the process of writing a first draft to be painful and frustrating. Usually, I start with a character, a premise, and some image that gives me a particular feeling.

And stupid. Brave and Stupid." Ravus smiled, but then his smile sagged. "But nothing can stop you from being terrible once you've learned how.

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.

There's nothing like a gunshot to make you the life of the party.

I don't feel prolific. I feel like I'm plodding along. Each day you sit down, and you hope that you get your work done.

Faeries are associated with wild untamed nature, with art, and with death - so the folklore is rich with different stories to explore.

The problem with faerie gifts is that they always come with a price, which is why they are made by the desperate and the foolish.

Life is like licking Honey from a Thorn