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Quotes About Vulnerability

She was torn between the impulse to run and the urge to curl up like a pill bug, close her eyes, tuck her head beneath her arms, and play the game of since-I-can't-see-monsters-monsters-can't-see-me.
~ Holly Black
You're mortal," he informs me. In his other hand, he's carrying an empty goblet, tipped over absently, as though he's forgotten he still carries it. "It's not safe for you here. Especially if you go around stabbing everyone.
~ Holly Black
only under the water can I allow myself to weep. Only under the water can I admit that I almost died and that I was terrified and that I wish there was someone to whom I could tell all that.
~ Holly Black
He closes his eyes. When he opens them, he releases my hand and turns so I cant see his face. ¨I can see why you thought what you did. I suppose I am not an easy person to trust. And maybe I ought not to be trusted, but let me say this: i trust you.¨ Page 162
~ Holly Black
I am not weak, he wanted to shout, but he wasn't sure he could say that aloud, either
~ Holly Black
Telling Sam and Daneca feels like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath. It hurts.
~ Holly Black
I am afraid that if I begin to feel, I won't be able to bear it. I am afraid that the emotion will be like a wave sucking me under.
~ Holly Black
One of his hands slides over my stomach, tracing the shape of my skin. He kisses me again, and it's like falling off a cliff. Like a mountain slide, building momentum with every touch, until there is only destruction ahead. I have never felt anything like this.
~ Holly Black
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.
~ Holly Black
I consider kissing her right there on the dirty couch, but self-preservation stops me. Once someone hurts you, it's harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn't stop you wanting them. Sometimes I actually think it makes the wanting worse
~ Holly Black
Startled, he loosed his grasp and she pulled free. He clutched her arm, but she spun around and pressed her mouth to his. His lips were rough, chapped. She felt the sting of fangs against her bottom lip. He made a sharp sound in the back of his throat and closed his eyes. Mouth opening under hers. The smell of him- of cold, damp stone- made her head swim. One kiss slid into another and it was perfect, was exactly right, was real.
~ Holly Black
Cardan had trusted Nicasia not to hurt him, which was ridiculous, since he well knew that everyone hurts one another and that the people you loved hurt you the most grievously.
~ Holly Black
Everyone finds different lessons in stories, I suppose, but here's one. Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway.
~ Holly Black
I hate that he knows what he's doing and I don't. I hate being vulnerable. I hate that I throw my head back, baring my throat. I hate the way I cling to him, the nails of one hand digging into his back, my thoughts splintering, and the single last thing in my head: that I like him better than I've ever liked anyone and that of all the things he's ever done to me, making me like him so much is by far the worst.
~ Holly Black
Tana would sit near the door to the basement with fingers in her ears, tears and snot running down her face as she cried and cried and cried. And little Pearl would toddle up, crying, too. They cried while they ate their cereal, cried while they watched cartoons, and cried themselves to sleep at night, huddled together in Tana's little bed. 'Make her stop' Pearl said, but Tana couldn't.
~ Holly Black
Behind Tana there was the sounds of splintering wood, as though something very large had hot the door. "No," she said softly, "Oh no. No." "Leave me," said Gavriel. ....."Shut up or I might," she told him.
~ Holly Black
Cardan's fingers dig into my back. He's trembling, and whether it is from ebbing magic or horror, I am not sure. But he holds me as though I am the only solid thing in the world.
~ Holly Black
I have heard for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very much like the feeling of fear
~ Holly Black
Every night, in every Coldtown, people die. People are fragile. They die of mistakes, of overdoses, of sickness. But mostly they die of Death.
~ Holly Black
You okay?" Anton asks, looking at me like he's trying to figure out if I'm drunk. His plans depend on me. I look as blank as possible and hope that it freaks him out. No point in my being the only miserable one.
~ Holly Black
Love is stupid. All we do is break one another's heart.
~ Holly Black
It's you I love. I spent so much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn't have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, scabrous thing. But it is yours. You probably guessed as much. But just in case you didn't.
~ Holly Black
Hazel kissed boys for all kinds of reasons -- because they were cute, because she was a little drunk, because she was bored, because they let her, because it was fun, because they looked lonely, because it blotted out her fears for a while, because she wasn't sure how many kisses she had left.
~ Holly Black
We have lived in our armor for so long, you and I. And now I am not sure if either of us knows how to remove it." — "I think of his riddle. How do people like us take off our armor? One piece at a time.
~ Holly Black