Abby L. > Abby's Quotes

“Eliot didn’t say anything. For all the years of his life he’d spent with Janet, he’d never really known her, not deep down. Sometimes he looked at her and thought, Gosh, I wonder what’s underneath all that anger, all that hard glossy armor? Maybe there’s just an innocent, wounded little girl in there who wants to come out and play and be loved and get happy. But now he wondered if maybe that little girl was long gone, or if she’d ever been there at all. What was under all that armor, all that anger? More anger, and more armor. Anger and armor, all the way down.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

“Sometimes he looked at her and thought, Gosh, I wonder what's underneath all that anger, all that hard glossy armor? Maybe there's just an innocent, wounded little girl in there who wants to come out and play and be loved and get happy. But now he wondered if maybe that little girl was long gone, or if she'd ever been there at all. What was under all that armor, all that anger? More anger, and more armor. Anger and armor, all the way down.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

“...In books there's always somebody standing by ready to say hey, the world's in danger, evil's on the rise, but if you're really quick and take this ring and put it in that volcano over there everything will be fine.

"But in real life that guy never turns up. He's never there. He's busy handing out advice in the next universe over. In our world no one ever knows what to do, and everyone's just as clueless and full of crap as everyone else, and you have to figure it all out by yourself. And even after you've figured it out and done it, you'll never know whether you were right or wrong. You'll never know if you put the ring in the right volcano, or if things might have gone better if you hadn't. There's no answers in the back of the book.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
― Terry Pratchett

“Crippled things are always more beautiful. It's the flaw that brings out beauty.”
― Holly Black, Tithe

“They say that nameless things change constantly -that names fix them in place like pins. But without a name, a thing isn't quite real either.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“I kissed him on the mouth, and then I threatened to kiss him some more if he didn't do exactly what I wanted.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Better she never be a bride than wind up a widow”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
― 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

“Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.”
― Holly Black, Ironside

“The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“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

“It is my belief that books are living things.... And as living things, they need to be protected.”
― Holly Black

“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

“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

“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“No trouble ever got fixed late at night," he said. "Midnight is for regrets.”
― Holly Black, Red Glove

“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

“If she was going to die, she might as well die sarcastic.”
― Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

“She wears trouble like a crown. If she ever falls in love, she’ll fall like a comet, burning the sky as she goes.”
― Holly Black, Black Heart

“We love until we do not. For us, love doesn't fade gradually. It snaps like a branch bent too far.”
― Holly Black, The Darkest Part of the Forest

“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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Pet the cat dude," says Sam. "She brought you a present. She wants you to tell her how badass she is."


"You are a tiny tiny killing machine." Daneca coos.


"What's she doing?" I ask.


"Purring!" says Daneca. She sounds delighted. "Good kitty. Who's an amazing killing machine? That's right. You are! You are a brutal brutal tiny lion! Yes, you are.”
― Holly Black, White Cat

“It was good to be hugged. Even by a monster.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“There's a monster in our wood. She'll get you if you're not good. Drag you under leaves and sticks. Punish you for all your tricks. Anest of hair and gnawed bone. You are never, ever coming... home.”
― Holly Black, The Darkest Part of the Forest

“And yet, I don’t regret it now. Having stepped off the edge, what I want to do is fall.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Perhaps it is Oak who is the fool, who caught a wolf and thought that by putting it in a gown and speaking to it as though it were a girl, it would become one.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“With him, I am forever a night-blooming flower, attracted and repelled by the heat of the sun.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir