"If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse."
~ Holly Black
Read all great Holly Black quotes below ...
>
In the realm of fantasy literature, Holly Black stands as a luminary whose words weave intricate tapestries of magic, mystery, and adventure. With a career spanning decades, Black has captivated readers with her spellbinding narratives and richly drawn characters, solidifying her place as one of the foremost voices in contemporary fantasy fiction.
Holly Black was born on November 10, 1971, in West Long Branch, New Jersey, USA. From a young age, she was drawn to the fantastical realms of fairy tales and folklore, which would later influence her own writing. Black attended The College of New Jersey, where she studied English and was an active member of the school's creative writing community.
After graduating, Black embarked on her literary journey, penning stories that blended elements of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Her early works garnered attention for their imaginative world-building and compelling characters, laying the foundation for her future success as an author.
Throughout her career, Holly Black has produced a diverse body of work that spans multiple genres and age groups. However, she is perhaps best known for her contributions to the fantasy genre, particularly her exploration of the faerie realm.
Some of Black's most popular and beloved works include:
- The Modern Faerie Tale Series: This trilogy, comprised of "Tithe," "Valiant," and "Ironside," thrust readers into a gritty and darkly enchanting world where humans and faeries collide. With its vivid imagery and complex characters, the series garnered widespread acclaim and cemented Black's reputation as a master of modern fantasy.
- The Folk of the Air Trilogy: This critically acclaimed series, which includes "The Cruel Prince," "The Wicked King," and "The Queen of Nothing," transports readers to the treacherous realm of Elfhame, where political intrigue and forbidden romance reign supreme. With its lush prose and morally ambiguous characters, the trilogy has captured the hearts of readers worldwide, earning praise for its immersive world-building and morally complex narrative.
- The Stolen Heir Duology: "The Poison Throne" and its sequel, "The Prisoner’s Throne," delve into a world of political intrigue, betrayal, and forbidden magic. As the gripping conclusion to the duology, "The Prisoner’s Throne" promises to deliver a thrilling finale that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
One of Holly Black's greatest strengths as a writer lies in her ability to blend the mundane with the magical, crafting narratives that feel both
familiar and fantastical. Her prose is lyrical and evocative, transporting readers to far-off lands and immersing them in richly detailed worlds populated by captivating characters.
Readers are drawn to Black's work for its blend of romance, adventure, and intrigue, as well as its exploration of complex themes such as power, identity, and morality. Her characters are flawed and multidimensional, grappling with their own inner demons and moral dilemmas in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
Over the course of her career, Holly Black has received numerous awards and accolades for her contributions to the literary world. She has been nominated for the prestigious Hugo, Nebula, and Mythopoeic Awards, among others, and has won acclaim from readers and critics alike for her inventive storytelling and compelling characters.
In addition to her success as a novelist, Black has also collaborated with other authors on various projects, including anthologies and graphic novels. Her versatility as a writer has allowed her to explore different mediums and genres, further cementing her status as a literary force to be reckoned with.
For readers seeking an escape into worlds of magic, intrigue, and adventure, Holly Black's books offer an unparalleled journey into the realms of fantasy. With their richly imagined settings, complex characters, and gripping narratives, her stories have the power to transport readers to places they never dreamed possible, while also challenging them to confront timeless questions of morality, identity, and human nature.
Whether you're a seasoned fantasy enthusiast or a newcomer to the genre, Holly Black's books promise an immersive and unforgettable reading experience that will leave you spellbound from beginning to end.
While there has been no official announcement regarding upcoming releases from Holly Black, fans eagerly await news of future projects from this celebrated author. With her track record of delivering captivating stories that push the boundaries of imagination, it's only a matter of time before Black's next literary masterpiece graces bookshelves around the world, ready to enchant readers once again with its magic and mystery.
Holly Black Best Quotes
“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“By you, I am forever undone.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?” Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question into something a compliment. “No” I say, glad to be annoyed back into the present.
“Tell me.” "I can't.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent 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, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.”
― Holly Black, White Cat“So I am to sit here and feed you information,” Cardan says, leaning against a hickory tree. “And you’re to go charm royalty? That seems entirely backward.” I fix him with a look. “I can be charming. I charmed you, didn’t I?” He rolls his eyes. “Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Mock me all you . Whatever I imagined then, now it is I who would beg and grovel for a kind word from your lips." His eyes are black with desire. "By you, I am forever undone.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.”
― Holly Black, Ironside“The three of you have one solution to every problem. Murder. No key fits every lock.” Cardan gives us all a stern look, holding up a long-fingered hand with my stolen ruby ring still on one finger. “Someone tries to betray the High King, murder. Someone gives you a harsh look, murder. Someone disrespects you, murder. Someone ruins your laundry, murder.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“He looks up at me with his night-colored eyes, beautiful and terrible all at once. “For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.” I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?” He grins up at me. “They missed.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Tell me again what you said at the revel,” he says, climbing over me, his body against mine.
“What?” I can barely think.
“That you hate me,” he says, his voice hoarse. “Tell me that you hate me.”
“I hate you,” I say, the words coming out a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” He kisses me harder.
“I hate you,” I breathe into his mouth. “I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.”
― Holly Black, White Cat“I am going to keep on defying you. I am going to shame you with my defiance. You remind me that I am a mere mortal and you are a prince of Faerie. Well, let me remind you that means you have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcell me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down. I promise you this is the least of what I can do.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you." "My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“I have lied and I have betrayed and I have triumphed. If only there was someone to congratulate me.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“It is my belief that books are living things.... And as living things, they need to be protected.”
― Holly Black“This is my room,” he points out, affronted. “And that’s my wife.”
“So you keep telling everyone,” the Bomb says. “But I am going to take out her stitches, and I don’t think you want to watch that.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe he’d to hear me scream.”
“I would,” Cardan says, standing. “And perhaps one day I will.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Nice things don’t happen in storybooks,” Taryn says. “Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Kill him before he makes you love him.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Once someone's hurt you, it's harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn't stop you from wanting them.”
― Holly Black, White Cat“Jude, you can't really think I don't know it's you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.”
― Holly Black, Tithe“If he thought I was bad, I would be worse. If he thought I was cruel, I would be horrifying.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Because you’re 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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“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.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Those who really love you don't mean to hurt you and if they do, you can't see it in their eyes but it hurts them too.”
― Holly Black“There’s always something left to lose.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, taking a dare to run over knives, an adrenaline strike of lightning, 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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Sweet Jude, you’re my dearest punishment”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“I feel a constellation of wounds, held together with string and stubbornness.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“I want to tell you so many lies”
― Holly Black , The Wicked King“I hate you," I breathed into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove“That’s what comes of hungering for something; you forget to check if it’s rotten before you gobble it down”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“I love my parents' murderer; I suppose I could love anyone.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Changing is what people do when they have no options left.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove“Yes, my great villan, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Before, I never knew how far I would go. Now I believe I have the answer. I will go as far as there is to go. I will go way too far.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“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.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.”
― Holly Black, Tithe“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.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“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.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“I think of his riddle. How do people us take off our armor? One piece at a time.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Desire is an odd thing. As soon as it’s sated, it transmutes. If we receive golden thread, we desire the golden needle.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Every hero is the villain of his own story.”
― Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown“You really do want me,' I say, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath as it hitches. 'And you hate it.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Pain makes you strong, Madoc once told me, making me lift a sword again and again. Get used to the weight.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god… Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“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. ”
― Holly Black, Ironside“Seelie and Unseelie, Wild Folk and Shy Folk, I am glad to have you march under my banner, glad of your loyalty, grateful for your honor.” His gaze goes to me. “To you, I offer honey wine and the hospitality of my table. But to traitors and oath breakers, I offer my queen’s hospitality instead. The hospitality of knives.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Tell me what I must slay, what I must steal, tell me the riddle I must solve or the hag I must trick. Only tell me the way, and I will do it, no matter the danger, no matter the hardship, no matter the cost.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“He's flint, you're tinder.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“I raise a plastic glass. “To family.” “And Faerieland,” says Taryn, raising hers. “And pizza,” says Oak. “And stories,” says Heather. “And new beginnings,” says Vivi. Cardan smiles, his gaze on me. “And scheming great schemes.” To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I can toast to that.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“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.”
― Holly Black, White Cat“The odd thing about ambition is this: You can acquire it a fever, but it is not so easy to shed.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“The point of a fight is not to have a good fight, it’s to win.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“His eyes are open, watching my flushed face, my ragged breathing. I try to stop myself from making embarrassing noises. It’s more intimate than the way he’s touching me, to be looked at that. 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 him better than I’ve ever d anyone and that of all the things he’s ever done to me, making me him so much is by far the worst.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Clap her in chains," says Randalin. Never have I so wished there was a way for me to show I was telling the truth. But there isn't. No oath of mine carries any weight. I feel a guard's hand close on my arm. Then Cardan's voice comes. "Do not touch her." A terrible silence follows. I wait for him to pronounce judgement on me. Whatever he commands will be done. His power is absolute. I don't even have the strength to fight back. "Whatever can you mean?" Randalin says. "She's-" "She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd. "The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“But I will not stand in front of your happiness. I will not even stand in front of misery that you choose for yourself.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“I am tired of caring,” I say. “Why should I?”
“Because they could kill you!”
“They better,” I say to her. “Because anything less than that isn’t going to work.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“We don't need to be good. But let's try to be fair.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Perhaps you could just allow yourself to be rescued," Cardan says. "For once.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“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 this. Maybe no one has.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Our eyes meet, and something dangerous sparks. He hates you, I remind myself.
“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.” I feel those words, feel them a kick to the stomach. He sees my expression and laughs, a sound full of mockery. I can’t tell which of us he’s laughing at. He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you. Maybe he hates you the more for it. After a moment, his eyes flutter closed. His voice falls to a whisper, as though he’s talking to himself. “If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.” He drifts off to sleep, but I am wide awake.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Show your power by appearing powerless.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince“Once, there was a girl who vowed she would save everyone in the world, but forgot herself.”
― Holly Black, The Darkest Part of the Forest“No trouble ever got fixed late at night," he said. "Midnight is for regrets.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove“Yeah, the whole family knows. It's no big deal. One night at dinner I said, 'Mom, you know the forbidden love that Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too.' It was easier for her to understand that way.”
― Holly Black, Tithe“The disturbing thing about Cardan is how well he plays the fool to disguise his own cleverness.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Come be angry at a nearer distance”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words," he says. "You don't want me dead.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“My sweet nemesis , how glad I am that you returned”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“Baby," she says in a harsh whisper, "in this world, lots of people will try to grind you down. They need you to be small so they can be big. You let them think whatever they want, but you make sure you get yours. You get yours.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove“There is no banquet too abundant for a starving man.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing“And the single last thing in my head: that I him better than I've ever d anyone and that of all the things he's ever done to me, making me him so much is by far the worst.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King“Death’s favorites don’t die.”
― Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown“I need to stop fantasizing about running away to some other life and start figuring out the one I have.”
― Holly Black, The Darkest Part of the Forest“Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder,” Locke calls after me.
“We would be surprised to find that,” I call back.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King