Charlie Hall Quotes

“I am a good enough thief to steal a shadow from a tower," she told him. "I can steal back your heart.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“Revenge on everybody. That would fill her time. That would keep her busy. Keep her from feeling her feelings.
If she couldn't be responsible or careful or good or loved, if she was doomed to be a lit match, then Charlie might as well go back to finding stuff to burn.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked, from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart. If her shadow had been one of those magic ones, she was pretty sure even that thing would have run away.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“She was a poisoned well of a girl.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“Okay kid," she told it. "The universe belongs to the curious.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“He turned his hollow gray eyes on her. "I'm angry," he said. "I am still so angry."
Surprised, charlie started to open her mouth and then closed it again.
"Last night, after you fell asleep, I couldn't stop looking at the swell of your cheek. The snarl of your dark hair. The shipped black nail polish on your toes, curled up against whatever dream you were having. The way you pulled loose the bottom sheet with the violence of sleeping. I looked at you and had a feeling so intense that it made me dizzy and a little sick." His gaze was on the silvery grass of the lawn. "It's no good to feel this way."
Charlie's heart hammered. He had never spoken to her like that. She didn't think anyone had spoken to her like that. "Vince?"
"When I saw you tonight - what he'd done, what he was doing, I wanted to kill him. I was furious and I haven't stopped being furious. I don't feel guilty. I wish he was alive so I could kill him again."
Astonishment robbed her of breath. Vince didn't get angry. He didn't talk about his feelings. He didn't sit alone in the dark, talking about shadows and stars.
He turned to her. "Pretend I didn't say any of that. If you can, pretend tonight never happened, Charlie.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“It would be years before she understood the technique he'd used to draw her in. The quicksand of cons, transitioning from having something small on someone to having them over a barrel. You start with blackmail. A little thing, maybe, so long as a person would put in some effort to make it go away. Maybe they would be willing to swipe something for you, fudge some numbers, change a grade, take a little cash out of the till, whatever. But that's when they were sunk. Because if they gave in, they were no longer just hiding whatever their initial indiscretion was, but what they'd done to cover it up. And the more they tried to dig themselves out, the deeper they sank.
There is nothing as instructive for learning how to get someone on the ropes as being put there yourself.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“He tipped his head up. "Do you think that stars have shadows?"
She followed his gaze. They were close enough to Springfield for light pollution to dull the night skies, but galaxies still spangled above them. The moon had marched nearly to the end of her night, ready to stagger to her own bed at dawn.
"I guess if there's some brighter star," she said, thinking of lying on the couch months ago, a deep-voiced man explaining the universe on her television while she tried to convince herself to apply for a new job. "Like the kind that's about to become a black hole. Don't they flare first?"
Vince nodded. "Quasars. They flare as they're dying. I guess that would give any other star nearby a shadow.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“He turned his hollow gray eyes on her. "I'm Angry," he said. "I am still so angry."
Surprised, charlie started to open her mouth and then closed it again.
"Last night, after you fell asleep, I couldn't stop looking at the swell of your cheek. The snarl of your dark hair. The shipped black nail polish on your toes, curled up against whatever dream you were having. The way you pulled loose the bottom sheet with the violence of sleeping. I looked at you and had a feeling so intense that it made me dizzy and a little sick." His gaze was on the silvery grass of the lawn. "It's no good to feel this way."
Charlie's heart hammered. He had never spoken to her like that. She didn't think anyone had spoken to her like that. "Vince?"
"When I saw you tonight - what he'd done, what he was doing, I wanted to kill him. I was furious and I haven't stopped being furious. I don't feel guilty. I wish he was alive so I could kill him again."
Astonishment robbed her of breath. Vince didn't get angry. He didn't talk about his feelings. He didn't sit alone in the dark, talking about shadows and stars.
He turned to her. "Pretend I didn't say any of that. If you can, pretend tonight never happened, Charlie.”
― Holly Black, Book of Night

“Then, she leaned forward to kiss him. He kissed her back with an intensity that felt at least partly like relief. Maybe he was nervous too. The thought made her bold. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she gave it a short tug.
He made a sound against her mouth.
"You like that?" A whole year she'd lived with him and hadn't known.
He drew back, looking down at her with a wild intensity. "I-yes." He swallowed whatever else he had been about to say.
"I am going," she told him, sliding her hands over his skin, letting her nails scratch him lightly as she went, "to spend the rest of tonight figuring out everything you like.”
― Holly Black , Thief of Night