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Holly Black

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Famous Holly Black Quotes

“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.”

FantasyCommandJudeCardanQueenThe Queen Of NothingElfhame
Book:The Queen of Nothing
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“In a moment, I am going to ask you to put the blade through your hand. When I ask you to do that, I want you to remember where your bones are, where you veins are. I want you to stab through your hand doing the least damage possible.' His voice is lulling, hypnotic, but my heart speeds anyway. Against my will, I aim the sharp point of the knife. I press is lightly against my skin. I am ready. I hate him, but I am ready. I hate him, and I hate myself. 'Now,' he says, and the glamour releases me. I take a half step back. I am in control of myself again, still holding the knife. ... My eyes on him, I slam the knife in to my hand. The pain is a wave that rises higher and higher but never crashes. I make a sound low in my throat. I may not deserve punishment for this, but I deserve punishment. Dain's expression is odd, blank. He takes a step back from me, as though I am the one who did the shocking thing instead of merely doing what he ordered.”

PunishmentHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeGlamourThe Cruel PrinceStabbingDainPrince Dain
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“No geas can save you from the effects of our fruits and poisons. Think carefully. I could grant you the power to enrapture all who looked upon you instead. I could give you a spot right there.' He touches my forehead. 'And anyone who saw it would be struck with love. I could give you a magical blade that cuts through starlight.”

PowerHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceDainPrince DainGeasGeases
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“In a moment, I am going to ask you to put the blade through your hand. When I ask you to do that, I want you to remember where your bones are, where you veins are. I want you to stab through your hand doing the least damage possible.' His voice is lulling, hypnotic, but my heart speeds anyway. Against my will, I aim the sharp point of the knife. I press it lightly against my skin. I am ready. I hate him, but I am ready. I hate him, and I hate myself. 'Now,' he says, and the glamour releases me. I take a half step back. I am in control of myself again, still holding the knife. ... My eyes on him, I slam the knife in to my hand. The pain is a wave that rises higher and higher but never crashes. I make a sound low in my throat. I may not deserve punishment for this, but I deserve punishment. Dain's expression is odd, blank. He takes a step back from me, as though I am the one who did the shocking thing instead of merely doing what he ordered.”

PunishmentHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeGlamourThe Cruel PrinceStabbingDainPrince Dain
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“I guess I don't know my daughter very well. Because the Jude I knew would cut out that boy's heart for what he did to you tonight.' At the shame of having the revel thrown in my face, I snap. 'You let me be humiliated in Faerie from the time I was a child. You've let Folk hurt me and laugh at me and mutilate me.' I hold up the hand with the missing fingertip, where one of his own guards bit it clean off. Another scar is at its centre, from where Dain forced me to stick a dagger through my hand. 'I've been glamoured and carried in to a revel, weeping and alone. As far as I can tell, the only difference between tonight and all the other nights when I endured indignities without complaint is that those benefited you, and when I endure this, it benefits me.' Madoc looks shaken. 'I didn't know.' 'You didn't want to know,' I return.”

ShameHolly BlackHumiliationThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Wicked KingFather And DaughterMadocSnap
Book:The Wicked King
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“And if I am particularly kind that evening, particularly deferential, if I laugh particularly loudly, it is because I know I will never do this again. I will never have him behave like this with me again. But for one final night, he's the father I remember best, the one in whose shadow I have- for better or worse- become what I am.”

FatherHolly BlackLast TimeThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Queen Of NothingFather And DaughterMadocSavouring
Book:The Queen of Nothing
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“Much of the clothing is moth-eaten, but I can see what they once were. A skirt with a beaded pattern of pomegranates, another that pulls up, like a curtain, to show a stage with jewelled mechanical puppets underneath. There is even one stitched with the silhouette of dancing fauns as tall as the skirt itself. I've admired Oriana's dresses for their elegance and opulence, but these awaken in me a hunger for a dress that's riotous. They make me wish I'd seen Locke's mother in one of her gowns. They make me think she must have liked to laugh.”

DressesHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeSkirtsGownsThe Cruel PrinceRiotousLiliana
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“...she speculates about all the aspects of the mortal world she's going to have to explain to Dad. 'Like cell phones,' she says. 'Or self-checkout in the grocery store. Oh, this is going to be amazing. Seriously, his exile is the best present you ever got me.' 'You know that he's going to be so bored that he's going to try to micromanage your life,' Taryn says. 'Or plan your invasion of a neighbouring apartment building.' At that, Vivi stops smiling. It makes Oak giggle, though.”

FunnyHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeOak GreenbriarThe Queen Of NothingMadocVivi DuarteExiled
Book:The Queen of Nothing
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“What they don't realise is this: Yes, they frighten me, but I have always been scared, since the day I got here. I was raised by the man who murdered my parents, reared in a land of monsters. I live with that fear, let it settle in to my bones, and ignore it. If I didn't pretend not to be scared, I would hide under my owl-down coverlets in Madoc's estate forever. I would lie there and scream until there was nothing left of me. I refuse to do that. I will not do that.”

FearScaredFrightenedHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceMadocFrighten
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“Tatterfell sews on cunning cuffs made from the scales of pinecones around the edges of frayed sleeves. Small tears in skirts are stitched over with embroidery in the shape of leaves and pomegranates and- on one- a cavorting fox. She has stitched dozens of leather slippers for me. I will be expected to dance so fiercely that I wear through a pair every night.”

Holly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceSewingMendingEmbroideryStitchingTatterfell
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“I can see the sea that encircles the island and beyond it, the bright lights of human cities and towns through the ever-present mist. I have never looked directly from our world in to theirs. Locke puts his hand against my back, between my shoulder blades. 'At night, the human world looks as though it's full of fallen stars.”

Holly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceLockeLightsFallen StarsHuman World
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“Wait,' he says, taking a step toward me. 'I want to see you again.' I groan, too exasperated for surprise. I am standing here in a borrowed blanket, boots, and mall-bought underwear. I am smeared in soil, and I have just made a fool of myself. 'Why?' He looks at me as though he sees something else entirely. There's an intensity in his gaze that makes me stand up a little straighter, despite the dirt. 'Because you're like a story that hasn't happened yet. Because I want to see what you will do. I want to be part of the unfolding of the tale.”

Holly BlackVillainThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceLockeCuriousityRun Away NowVomit Inducing
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“The boy's friends come over to lead him away, and at that moment, improbably, Locke's gaze lifts. His tawny fox eyes meet mine and widen in surprise. I am immobilised, my heart speeding. I brace myself for more scorn, but then one corner of his mouth lifts. He winks, as if in acknowledgement of being caught out. As if we're sharing a secret. As if he thinks I am not loathly, as though he does not find my mortality contagious.”

SurpriseHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeThe Cruel PrinceEye ContactLockeWink
Book:The Cruel Prince
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“Faeries despise humans as liars, but there are different kinds of lying. Since you and I first came to Faerie, Jude, we've lied to each other plenty. We've pretended to be fine, pretended the possibility of being fine into existence. And when pretending seemed like it might be too hard, we just didn't ask each other the questions that would require it. We smiled and forced laughter and rolled our eyes at the Folk, as though we weren't afraid, when we were both scared all the time. And if there were hairline cracks in all that pretending, we pretended those away, too.”

LyingPretendingHolly BlackJude DuarteJudeFaeriesTaryn DuarteTarynThe Lost SistersPretended
Book:The Lost Sisters
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“Some afternoons we sit in groves carpeted with emerald moss, and other evenings we spend in high towers or up in trees. We learn about the movements of constellations in the sky, the medicinal and magical properties of herbs, the language of birds and flowers and people as well as the language of the Folk (though it occasionally twists in my mouth), the composition of riddles, and how to walk soft-footed over leaves and brambles to leave neither trace nor sound. We are instructed in the finer points of the harp and the lute, the bow and the blade. Taryn and I watch them as they practice enchantments. For a break, we all play at war in a green field with a broad arc of trees.”

LessonsHolly BlackThe Folk Of The AirJude DuarteJudeFaerieThe Cruel PrinceTaryn DuarteTarynFaerie School
Book:The Cruel Prince
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