Quotes from Holly Black

I am the Queen of Elfhame. Even though I am the queen in exile, I am still the queen. And that means Madoc isn't just trying to take Cardan's throne. He's trying to take mine.

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.

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

He looks like a faerie lover stepped out of a ballad, the kind where no good comes to the girl who runs away with him.

Kaye: You know what the sun looks like? Janet: No, What? Kaye: Like he slit his wrists in a bathtub and the blood is all over the water. Janet: That's gross, Kaye. Kaye: And the moon is just watching. She's just watching him die. She must have driven him to it.

Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.

I love you, you see...and I fear I have no way to say or show it that isn't terrible, except coming here. I would kill everyone in the world for you, if you wanted.......Or not obviously

Watching my back is the perfect opportunity to stick a knife in it.

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.

And if I wanted to kill myself, I wouldn't throw myself off a roof. And if I was going to throw myself off a roof, I would put on some pants before I did it.

You are more dangerous than daybreak.

We love until we do not. For us, love doesn't fade gradually. It snaps like a branch bent too far.

You have only seen the least of what I can do.

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.

Well, even if the serpent bites off your head," says Tatterfell, "the rest of you will still look good." "That's the spirit," I tell her.

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.

Maybe it isn't the worst thing to want to be loved, even if you're not. Even if it hurts. Maybe being human isn't always being weak. Maybe it was the shame that was the problem.

I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Your heart beats fast. Your senses are heightened. You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy.

He leans in and closes his eyes. "Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.

whatever you love, that is your weakness

I have said that he has the power to deliver a compliment and make it hurt. So, too, he can say something that ought to be insulting and deliver it in such a way that it feels like being truly seen.

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

His mouth curls into a smile. His eyes shine with wicked intent. "Look at them all, your subjects. A shame not a one knows who their true ruler is.

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