Quotes from Holly Black

Because you're like a story that hasn't happened yet. Because I want to see what you will do. I want to be part of the unfolding of the tale.

There's always something left to lose.

And yet my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the undersea. It was yours before I could ever admit it, and yours it shall ever remain.

But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, like an adrenaline strike of lightning, like the moment when you've swum too far out in the sea and there is no going back, only cold black water closing over your head.

The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.

Sweet Jude, you're my dearest punishment

I feel like a constellation of wounds, held together with string and stubbornness.

I hate you," I breathed into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.

That's what comes of hungering for something; you forget to check if it's rotten before you gobble it down

I love my parents' murderer; I suppose I could love anyone.

If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.

No, I won't help you. No, I won't hear you explain why I should. It really is a magical word:  no . You say whatever bullshit you want and I just say no.

Yes, my great villan, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can

Every hero is the villain of his own story.

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.

I think of his riddle. How do people like us take off our armor? One piece at a time.

I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. "And you." He looks at me, his lips curving in something that's not quite a smile; it's more and less than that. "I knew little else, but I always knew you." And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.

I wasn't kind, Jude. Not to many people. Not to you. I wasn't sure if I wanted you or if I wanted you gone from my sight so that I would stop feeling as I did, which made me even more unkind. But when you were gone—truly gone beneath the waves—I hated myself as I never have before.

Desire is an odd thing. As soon as it's sated, it transmutes. If we receive golden thread, we desire the golden needle.

Pain makes you strong, Madoc once told me, making me lift a sword again and again. Get used to the weight.

You are the only thing I have that is neither duty nor obligation, the only thing I chose for myself. The only thing I want.

Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god… Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment

We are, largely, who we remember ourselves to be. That's why habits are so hard to break. If we know ourselves to be liars, we expect not to tell the truth. If we think of ourselves as honest, we try harder.

You really do want me,' I say, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath as it hitches. 'And you hate it.