110+ Holly Black Quotes On Friendship, Education And Writing

Holly Black is an American writer of contemporary fantasy and horror fiction. She is best known for her best-selling series The Spiderwick Chronicles, which she co-wrote with illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and for her novel The Cruel Prince, the first book in the Folk of the Air series. She has also written several standalone novels and short story collections, as well as graphic novels and comics. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Holly Black on love, friendship, education.

Top 10 Holly Black Quotes

1. Mutually assured destruction.
2. Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.
3. You're like this leopard who's pretending to be a house cat.
4. 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.
5. Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of thing long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.
6. There’s nothing like a gunshot to make you the life of the party.
7. If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.
8. She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.
9. They say that nameless things change constantly—that names fix them in place like pins.
10. She sat in the dew-damp grass and ripped up clumps of it, tossing them in the air and feeling vaguely guilty about it. Some gnome ought to pop out of the tree and scold her for torturing the lawn.

Holly Black Short Quotes

• Changing is what people do when they have no options left.
• Every hero is the villain of his own story.
• Some promises aren’t worth keeping.
• One night you will ask me for something I cannot give.
• Clever girl. You play with fire because you want to be burnt.
• It's the flaw that brings out the beauty.
• The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.
• To remind me, pain is the best teacher
• Poisonous jealousy thrummed through my veins.
• My head is pounding. I wish the mints were aspirin.

Holly Black Quotes About Love

I'm not very good at explaining things," she said. "But I think you have beautiful eyes. I love the gold in them. I love that they're different from my eyes- I see mine all the time and I'm bored with them. — Holly Black

Because I am about to be devoured by poodles," I quip. "Remember me always, my love. — Holly Black

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

Mine. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it's not going to encourage anyone's betterment. — Holly Black

We all wind up drawn to what we're afraid of, drawn to try to find a way to make ourselves safe from a thing by crawling inside of it, by loving it, by becoming it. — Holly Black

Allow me to explain how my whole life has prepared me for this moment. I am used to girls screaming, and your screams – will be sweeter than another’s cries of love. — Holly Black

You can always count on your family to love you. And to betray you. And then to feel guilty about it. — Holly Black

His eyes look too bright, the way the do in people who are in love, people who are enraged, and people who are completely bonkers. — Holly Black

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

I consider kissing her right there on the dirty couch, but self-preservation stops me. Once someone hurts you, it’s harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn’t stop you wanting them. Sometimes I actually think it makes the wanting worse — Holly Black

Holly Black Quotes About Leaves

Maybe it was that nearly everyone else was dead and she felt a little bit dead too, but she figured that even a vampire deserved to be saved. Maybe she ought to leave him, but she wasn't going to. — Holly Black

I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen. — Holly Black

I drive him to school, then I break back into Barron's house. I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen. Then I go home and shave until my skin is as slick as any slickster's. — Holly Black

Holly Black Famous Quotes And Sayings

I'm not good at having friends. I mean, I can make myself useful to people. I can fit in. I get invited to parties and I can sit at any table I want in the cafeteria. But actually trusting someone when they have nothing to gain from me just doesn't make sense. All friendships are negotiations of power. — Holly Black

He must have been handsome when he was alive and was handsome still, although made monstrous by his pallor and her awareness of what he was. His mouth looked soft, his cheekbones as sharp as blades, and his jaw curved, giving him an off-kilter beauty. His black hair a mad forest of dirty curls. — Holly Black

You both ... you both saved me?" "Come on," said Luis. "You make it sound like it was hard for Val to go to the Unseelie Court, strike a deal with Roiben, challenge Mabry to a duel, win back your heart, and then get back here during rush hour. — Holly Black

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

I heard you've been having some problems with your girlfriend." Headmistress Northcutt says. "No," I say. "Not at all." Audrey broke up with me after the winter holiday, exhausted by my moodiness. It's impossible to have problems with a girlfriend who's no longer mine. — Holly Black

Sam: You know what I wish? Cassel: What? Sam: That someone would covert my bed into a robot that would fight other bed robots to the death for me. — Holly Black

Telling Sam and Daneca feels like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath. It hurts. — Holly Black

I got bored," he says. "Besides, you know what's creepier than walking around your dead brothers' apartment? Sitting alone in a hearse in front of his apartment. — Holly Black

I haven't had a very good day. I think I might still be hung over and everyone's dead and my root beer's gone. — Holly Black

A stray dog, I might understand," she said. "But this? You are too softhearted." No, Mabry," Ravus said. "I am not." He looked in Val's direction. "I think she wants to die." Maybe you can help her after all," Mabry said. "You're good at helping people die. — Holly Black

A mortal had woven it, a man who, having caught sight of the Seelie queen, had spent the remainder of his short life weaving depictions of her. He had died of starvation, raw, red fingers staining the final tapestry. — Holly Black

You better get over here with my car,” Grandad says. “Before I call the cops and tell them you stole it.” “Sorry,” I say contritely. Then the rest of what he said sinks in and I laugh. “Wait, did you just threaten me with calling the police? Because that I’d like to see. — Holly Black

Occasionally, there are battles in the sky. One likes to imagine the angels are always triumphant. One does not like to think of the ancient and terrible scales balancing the infernal and divine as wobbling back and forth. Tilting freely, to and fro. One does not like to think that sometimes it is the angel that falls. — Holly Black

As the last Seelie left the hall, Roiben, self-declared King of the Unseelie Court, nearly fell into his throne. Kaye tried to smile at him, but he was not looking at her. He was staring out across the brugh with eyes the color of falling ash. Corny had not stopped laughing. — Holly Black

If you keep it," Daneca says, "he'll have his claws in you." Everyone has their claws in me. Everyone. — Holly Black

I have no memory of climbing the stairs up to the roof. I don't even know how to get where I am, which is a problem since I'm going to have to get down, ideally in a way that doesn't involve dying. — Holly Black

She sits up. I can’t read her expression, but her cheeks look a little pink. “I didn’t think you were going to be here.” “I live here. — Holly Black

I can’t help feeling a little bit competitive and a little bit disappointed in myself that I’m already so far behind. After all, Yulikova thinks Barron has a real future with the Bureau. She told me so. I told her that sociopaths are relentlessly charming. I think she figured I was joking. — Holly Black

There’s people who do things and people who never do—who say they will someday, but they just don’t. I want to go on a quest. I’ve always wanted to go on a quest. And now that I have one, I’m not backing down from it. I’m not going home until it’s complete. — Holly Black

Once, she made a boy come out of his house and kiss her under the streetlight. It was her first kiss. She thinks it was probably his, too. She never told him and she never, ever will. — Holly Black

I'm going to take off your gag.And if you try to bite me or grab me or anything, I'll hit you with this thing as hard as I can as many times as I can. Understood?"- Tana to Gavriel, page 20 chapter 3 — Holly Black

The inside is packed with people. Lots of them crowding the bar, passing drinks back for people to carry to tables. A bunch of guys are pouring shots of vodka. "To Zacharov!" one toasts. "To open hearts and open bars!" calls another. "And open legs," says Anton. — Holly Black

She suddenly understood why she had let him kiss her in the diner, why she had wanted him at all. She wanted to control him. He was every arrogant boyfriend that had treated her mother badly. He was every boy that told her she was too freaky, who had laughed at her, or just wanted her to shut up and make out. He was a thousand times less real than Roiben. — Holly Black

Nobody ever really sees me the way I am, underneath everything. But she did. She does. — 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

She'd always been a little contemptuous of beauty, as though it was something you had to trade away some other vital thing for. — Holly Black

He looks like the good boy he's never been. — Holly Black

It’s just that you go so crazy being alone like that. Sometimes he’d forget my water or food and I’d cry and cry and cry.” She stops talking and looks out the window. “I would try to tell myself stories to pass the time. Fairy tales. Parts of books. But they got used up. — Holly Black

It's starting to sink in," Corny said. "I can almost look at you without wanting to bang my head against the wall. — Holly Black

She took a deep breath, "Last chance. Are you in need of rescuing?" His expression turned very strange, almost as if she'd struck him, "yes," he said finally. -Tana and Gavriel-page 33- chapter 5 — Holly Black

Put your puppet on the throne." said Talathain. "You may make her Queen but she won’t be Queen for long. — Holly Black

I thought you needed to be tougher. But I've been thinking that protecting somebody by hurting them before someone else gets the chance isn't the kind of protecting that anybody wants. — Holly Black

Mirroring behavior. When a mark takes a drink from his water glass, so should you. When he smiles, so should you. Keep it subtle, rather than creepy, and it’s a good technique. — Holly Black

And stupid. Brave and Stupid." Ravus smiled, but then his smile sagged. "But nothing can stop you from being terrible once you've learned how. — Holly Black

I need to talk to you. I had a weird dream." "Let me guess. You got tied up by lady ninjas. With big hooters." "Uh, no." I take a sip of coffee and wince. It was ridiculously strong. My grandfather shoves a strip of bacon in his mouth with a grin. "Guess it would have been kind of weird if we'd had the same dream." I roll my eyes. "Well, you'd better not tell me anything else. Don't ruin the surprise in case I have it tonight. — Holly Black

But now I wonder--what if everyone is pretty much the same and it's just a thousand small choices that add up to the person you are? No good or evil, no black and white, no inner demons or angels whispering the right answers in our ears like it's some cosmic SAT test. Just us, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day,making the best choices we can. The thought is horrifying. If that's true, then there's no right choice. There's only choice. — Holly Black

But the Courts aren't places humans are supposed to be, especially the Unseelie Court. Most faeries won't even go there." We have to go - we have to get Ravus's heart. He's going to die if we don't." what are we going to do? Go down there and ask for it?" Pretty much. — Holly Black

You can break a thing, but you cannot always guide it afterward into the shape you want. — Holly Black

Oh- and grab the plastic bag over by my suitcase." I slug down the last of the coffee and get up. The bag contains panty hose. I put them on her desk. "They're for you." "You want me to look homeless, desperate, but also kind of fabulous? — Holly Black

Little mouse," a voice said through the keyhole. "Don't you know the more you wriggle, the greater the cat's delight? — Holly Black

Death’s favorites don’t die. — Holly Black

I want you and I hate wanting things and I especially hate admitting I want them. — Holly Black

You said you were allowed to lose it,' some part of her reminded herself. 'Not yet, not yet. — Holly Black

Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them. — Holly Black

Someone could cut through the mess in our house and look at it like one might look at rings on a tree or layers of sediment. They'd find the black-and-white hairs of a dog we had when I was six, the acid-washed jeans my mother once wore, the seven blood-soaked pillowcases from the time I skinned my knee. All our family secrets rest in endless piles. — Holly Black

Memory is slippery. It bends to our understanding of the world, twists to accommodate our prejudices. It is unreliable. Witnesses seldom remember the same things. They identify the wrong people. They give us the details of events that never happened. Memory is slippery, but my memories suddenly feel slipperier. — Holly Black

Keep going' she told herself, 'Don't look back.' But she looked anyways. — Holly Black

It makes you a different person, to not have a past. It eats away at who you are, until what’s left is all construct, all artifice. — Holly Black

If she was going to die, she might as well die sarcastic. — Holly Black

Startled, he loosed his grasp and she pulled free. He clutched her arm, but she spun around and pressed her mouth to his. His lips were rough, chapped. She felt the sting of fangs against her bottom lip. He made a sharp sound in the back of his throat and closed his eyes. Mouth opening under hers. The smell of him- of cold, damp stone- made her head swim. One kiss slid into another and it was perfect, was exactly right, was real. — Holly Black

I'm sorry I kissed you- it was selfish and it upset you- but you can't ask me to pretend I didnt want to. — Holly Black

He was as honest as any criminal can hope to be. — Holly Black

You are more dangerous than daybreak. — Holly Black

Are you sure?" Aidan asked, "Gavriel's still a vampire." "He warned me about you and about them. He didn't have to. I'm not going to repay that by-" she hesitated, then frowned. "What did you call him?" "That's his name," Aidan sighed, "Gavriel. The other vampires, while they were tying me to the bed, they said his name." "Oh." With a final tug she pulled the blanked free and tossed it over to 'Gavriel' -Tana and Aidan-page 23-chapter 3 — Holly Black

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty. — Holly Black

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

He was saying that the end of the world wasn't an accident; it was a joke. — Holly Black

in her dreams, blood tasted like fizzy strawberry soda. If you drank it too fast, you got brain freeze. When she was older, after she'd licked a cut on her finger, the taste of that became the taste in her dreams: copper and tears. — Holly Black

I thought weirdness was a good thing. I don't mean that defensively, either. I thought it was something to be cultivated. — Holly Black

You set me up," I say. "One big con. You can't blame me because I turned out not to be gullible enough. You can't blame the mark. That's not how it works. Have some respect for the nature of the game. — Holly Black

Ruthless. That’s my girl. — Holly Black

It’s sweet. All this trouble for a kitty. — Holly Black

Tana. In all my long life, though there were many times I prayed for it, no one has ever saved me. No one but you. — Holly Black

There’s something about her—Cassel, I have met many evil men and women in my life. I have made deals with them, drank with them. I have done things that I myself have difficulty reconciling—terrible things. But I have never known anyone like your mother. She is a person without limits—or if she has any, she hasn’t found them yet. She never needs to reconcile anything. — Holly Black

It feels like the whole world has turned upside down. There aren't any more rules. Hey,' I say to Sam, because if the world's gone crazy, then I guess I can do whatever I want. "Guess what? I'm a worker. — Holly Black

Flattery will get you everywhere," Sam says, "Except, apparently, off a roof. — Holly Black

I need your help," says the tiny figure. Her voice is sad and soft and sounds like Lila's, but with an odd accent that might just be how cats sound when they talk. — Holly Black

You have to write a lot. And you have to rewrite what you wrote a lot more. — Holly Black

This is the part in the movie where that guy says, "Zombies? What zombies?" just before they eat his brains. I don't want to be that guy. — Holly Black

Carney is like a graveyard where everyone already owns their plots and has built houses on top of them. — Holly Black

Boys never believe I can beat them, she told me back then. But I always win in the end. — Holly Black

Everything was strange and beautiful and swollen with possibilities. — Holly Black

He runs to the sink to spit it out. I grin. There’s nothing quite as funny as someone else’s misery. — Holly Black

There is nothing for her beyond those gates," Gavriel said. "Do you think to bring her along like a talisman to remind you of your humanity? Or do you think sharing your damnation will lighten the burden of it? — Holly Black

She’s an old lady,” Barron says. “And she’s been locked up for years. Let her have some fun. She needs to blow off steam. Seduce old dudes. Lose money at canasta. — Holly Black

But if you didn't believe in monsters, then how were you going to be able to keep safe from them? — Holly Black

So I'm scared, because you're not just not human, you're not like anyone....there's nobody like you in all the world and it's you I want. I want you and I hate wanting things and I especially hate admitting I want them. — Holly Black

whatever you love, that is your weakness — Holly Black

I'm a powerful being... a wizard," Corny said. "So don't try anything." "Yes," said the little faery, blinking black eyes rapidly. "No. Try nothing. — Holly Black

I thought of how proud he was when he took the marks- cutting the skin of his throat in a long slash and then packing it with ashes until keloid scars rose up. He called it his second smile. — Holly Black

If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then surely you should be friend to my friend. — Holly Black

More and more I feel like the boy who cut off his nose to spite his face. — Holly Black

Great. Lookout. I'm a lookout. Another thing to put on my college applications. What do I do if I see someone?" Val looked back. "I'm not sure, actually. — Holly Black

Life's full of opportunities to make crappy decisions that feel good. And after the first one, the rest get a whole lot easier. — Holly Black

Life is like licking Honey from a Thorn — Holly Black

The problem with cell phones is that you can’t slam them down into a cradle when you hang up. Your only option is to throw them, and if you do, they just skitter across the floor and crack their case. It’s not satisfying at all. I close my eyes and bend down to pick up the pieces. — Holly Black

Life Lessons by Holly Black

1. Holly Black teaches us to never give up on our dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem. She also shows us that it is possible to create something beautiful and unique out of our own experiences and perspectives. Lastly, she demonstrates that it is possible to find success through hard work and dedication.