Quotes from Holly Black

Mine. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it's not going to encourage anyone's betterment.

I remember what it was to hate him with the whole of my heart but Iv'e remembered too late.

Polyhymnia's

I think of Cardan's words in the brugh, before he destroyed the crown: neither loyalty nor love should be compelled. He was right. Of course he was right.

Beside them, anyone might as well be a shadow, a blurry reflection of a reflection.

You think I don't deserve him,' I say to Cardan. He smiles slowly, like the moon slipping beneath the waves of the lake. 'Oh no, I think you're perfect for each other.

I can see the sea that encircles the island and beyond it, the bright lights of human cities and towns through the ever-present mist. I have never looked directly from our world in to theirs. Locke puts his hand against my back, between my shoulder blades. 'At night, the human world looks as though it's full of fallen stars.

She is kmy wife. The rightful High Queen of Elfhame and most definitely not in exile.

Cardan hätte der Junge aus dem Herzen aus Stein aus Aslogs Geschichte sein sollen, doch irgendwie hatte er es zugelassen, dass sein Herz zu Glas geworden war. Mit jedem Atemzug spürte er die zerbrochenen Scherben in seiner Lunge.

The problem with coming through something terrible and big is that afterward, you're left feeling all the feelings that you shoved down and pushed away.

Get down on your knees," Cardan says, looking insufferably pleased with himself. His fury has transmuted into gloating. "Beg. Make it pretty. Flowery. Worthy of me.

She'd been afraid of herself. Somebody needed to keep her in check, and so that person became Charlie herself. Making sure she got knocked down every time things were going well, picking the wrong people to love, getting fired from jobs, screwing up. Charlie had been walking away from herself her whole life.

He'd like to make you believe he's our leader, but it's more than Nicasia likes power, I like dramatics, and Valerian likes violence. Cardan can provide us with all three, or at least excuses for all three.' 'Dramatics?' I echo. 'I like for things to happen, for stories to unfold. And if I can't find a good enough story, I make one.' He looks every inch the trickster in that moment.

If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse - Jude Duarte, the Cruel Prince

We can still walk away," Walk away. Wasn't that what she'd tried to do for years?

Prince Cardan watched me all night, a shark restlessly circling, waiting for the right moment to bite. Even now I can conjure the memory of the scorched black of his eyes. And if I laughed louder for the sake of angering him, if I smiled wider, and kissed Locke longer, that is a kind of deceit that even the Folk cannot condemn.

It's frightening to have a choice like this in front of me, a choice that changes all future choices.

I'm kind of a coward about love", she continued, "I said i wished boys would show me some secret side of themselves, but you did, and now all i wanna do is run away.

in the mortal world, there are such things as backyards. Here, there are forest and sea, rocks and mazes, flowers that are red only when they get fresh blood.

Do not fall under Prince Oak's spell,' he warns as the knight climbs up the rocks to us. 'He's not what he seems.

As I thought. I didn't appreciate you properly. I dismissed your desire for knighthood. I dismissed your capacity for strategy, for strength- and for cruelty. That was my mistake, and one I will not make again.' I am not sure if that's a threat or an apology.

Cardan looks at me as though he's never seen me before. He looks at me as though no one has ever spoken to him like this, maybe no one has.

the dress clings to my chest and waist, skirt flaring over my hips. The tattered edges give it a haunting elegance, as though I am wrapped in the shadows of dusk. I look the picture of mysterious courtier, rather than someone who sleeps in dirt.

I laugh again. Honestly, I don't know why I laughed so infrequently before. Everything is marvellous and ridiculous.