SW > SW's Quotes

“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

“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 like a compliment.
“No” I say, glad to be annoyed back into the present. “Tell me.”
"I can't.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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

“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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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

“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

“Cardan grins at me as though we've been great friends all our lives. I forgot how charming he can be--and how dangerous that is.”
― 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

“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

“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”
― 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 like 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

“Sweet Jude, you’re my dearest punishment”
― 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

“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

“Marry me,” he says. “Become the Queen of Elfhame.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“A heart, once stolen, can never be taken back.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Impossible is my specialty.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“You have my heart, Jest. I don't know if you deserve it or not. I can't tell if you're a hero or a villain, but it doesn't seem to matter. Either way, my heart is yours.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Her mother sneered. “Then you are a fool.”

“Good. I’ve become rather fond of fools.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Why is a raven like a writing desk? Because they both have quills dipped in ink.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. “You’re…” He grinned. “A wanted man?” She ducked beneath the raised hands of the next couple. Rotated back. Curtsied. “Exactly,” she said as her palm found Jest’s again. “Good,” he said, his dimples showing, “I hoped you might still feel that way.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“The Darkling slumped back in his chair. “Fine,” he said with a weary shrug. “Make me your villain.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, "is that it makes us weak.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Watch yourself, Nikolai,” Mal said softly. “Princes bleed just like other men.”
Nikolai plucked an invisible piece of dust from his sleeve. “Yes,” he said. “They just do it in better clothes.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“I took a breath. “Your highness—”
“Nikolai,” he corrected. “But I’ve also been known to answer to ‘sweetheart’ or ‘handsome.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.

Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Then I’d be alone, too," he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm