First > First's Quotes

“I only know now that the scientists are wrong.

The world is flat.

I know because I was tossed right off the edge and I've been trying to hold on for 17 years. I've been trying to climb back up for 17 years but it's nearly impossible to beat gravity when no one is willing to give you a hand.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“And I've fallen.

So hard.

I've hit the ground. Gone right through it. Never in my life have I felt this. Nothing like this. I've felt shame and cowardice, weakness and strength. I've known terror and indifference, self-hate and general disgust. I've seen things that cannot be unseen.

And yet I've known nothing like this terrible, horrible, paralyzing feeling. I feel crippled. Desperate and out of control. And it keeps getting worse. Every day I feel sick. Empty and somehow aching.

Love is a heartless bastard.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Destroy Me

“The blaring of an alarm jarred me out of sleep. I shot up in bed, and for a second, I couldn’t see anything. Fear punched through me. Had the contacts rolled into the back of my eyes while I slept and severed my optic nerves? Was that even possible? Aly groaned somewhere nearby. “What is that sound?” “I don’t know. I’ve gone blind,” I said, voice laced with panic. Fuck, that was the second time I’d forgotten to disguise it. “What?” she yelped, and the mattress shifted with her movement. “Help me,” I whimpered, Batman-style, and yes, it was just as pathetic as it sounds. “Oh my god,” she said with a shaky laugh. “You’re not blind. Your dumb baklava slid sideways.”
― Navessa Allen, Lights Out

“There isn’t a time limit on grief or trauma.”
― Navessa Allen, Lights Out

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”
― 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

“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

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”
― 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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Show your power by appearing powerless.”
― 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

“I get why he chose her. I just wish she had chosen me.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“They will not use my tears for their entertainment.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“I know that every year for my birthday, I will get a new pair of tributes, one girl and one boy, to mentor to their deaths. Another sunrise on the reaping.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“And while Lenore Dove will forever be my true love, Louella is my one and only sweetheart.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“But she was smarter than me, or luckier. She's the one who finally kept that sun from rising.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“A cannon fires. Somewhere, Beetee’s heart breaks into fragments so small it can never be repaired.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“I would welcome death, if it wasn’t for my promise to Lenore Dove that I would somehow keep the sun from rising on the reaping.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“Dove color: Warm gray with a slight purplish or pinkish tint. Her color. Her bird. Her name.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“I wouldn’t want to ruin it.” “You won’t. That’s what it’s made for.” She touches the snake’s head, then the bird’s, in turn. “It takes a lot to break these two. They’re survivors.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“I dismount the chariot and lay Louella down, taking a step back so Snow can’t pretend he doesn’t see her broken little bird body. Then I gesture to him and begin to applaud, giving credit where credit is due.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“I guess that’s my answer. A sister is someone you fight with and fight for. Tooth and nail.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“They will not use our tears for their entertainment.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping