The Lost Sisters Quotes

“Let’s start with a love story. Or maybe it’s another horror story. It seems like the difference is mostly in where the ending comes.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Fairy tales are full of girls who wait, who endure, who suffer. Good girls. Obedient girls. Girls who crush nettles until their hands bleed. Girls who haul water for witches. Girls who wander through deserts or sleep in ashes or make homes for transformed brothers in the woods. Girls without hands, without eyes, without the power of speech, without any power at all. But then a prince rides up and sees the girl and finds her beautiful. Beautiful, not despite her suffering, but because of it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold. Be good, but not too good. Be pretty, but not too pretty. Be honest, but not too honest. Maybe no one got lucky. Maybe it was too hard.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You’re awful.” He said it as though he was delighted. “And the worst part is that you believe otherwise.”
― Holly Black

“Fairy tales have a moral: Stay on the path. Don’t trust wolves. Don’t steal things, not even things you think no normal person would care about. Share your food but don’t trust people who want to share their food with you; don’t eat their shiny red apples, not their candy houses, nor any of it. Be nice, always nice, and polite to everyone: kings and beggars, witches and wounded bears. Don’t break a promise.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, lest that your hearts blood should run cold.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“She turned to me, head titled, her expression pure confusion. As though I had no reason to be afraid of a broken heart. She had no idea how dangerous a broken heart could be. You do, though. You know.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Sometimes it’s easier to be mad at the people close to us,” Vivi said, “than to be mad at the people who deserve it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“How does it feel?” he asked. “To be stuck in a fairy tale?”
“How does it feel to be one?”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I think about that story a lot. I think about it all the time.
It’s the kind of thing you like. The wicked are slain, with swords no less. Vengeance is had. Boldness is rewarded. But what about all those girls, all those obedient girls who trusted and loved and wed and died? Weren’t they bold, too?
I bet you don’t think so. I bet you think they were just stupid.
That’s your problem in a nutshell. You’re judgmental. Everyone makes mistakes. They trust the wrong people. They fall in love. Not you, though. And that’s why it’s so hard to ask you for forgiveness.
But I am. Asking. I mean, I am going to ask. I am going to try to explain how it happened and how sorry I am.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“that’s one good thing about being obedient and faithful and good. People think you will never surprise them.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I know what you did,” he drawled, voice low, not at all sounding like he was asking a question. “Wicked girl. Yet you let your sister take the brunt of my ire. That wasn’t very nice, was it?”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Love is greedy,”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Let's start with a love story.

Or maybe it's another horror story. It seems like the difference is mostly in where the ending comes.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Ah.” He sat down on the couch, looking stunned with lack of sleep. “And so you came here in the middle of the night?”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“But for a moment it felt good to be awful, like looking down on the world from some great height.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You're awful.' He said it as though he was delighted. 'And the worst part is that you believe otherwise.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Fairy tales have a moral: Stay on the path. Don’t trust wolves. Don’t steal things, not even things you think no normal person would care about. Share your food but don’t trust people who want to share their food with you; don’t eat their shiny red apples, nor their candy houses, nor any of it. Be nice, always nice, and polite to everyone: kings and beggars, witches and wounded bears. Don’t break a promise. Be bold, be bold, but not too bold. It’s important that we learn the lessons our mother didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“How does it feel?' he asked. 'To be stuck in a fairy tale?'

'How does it feel to be one?' I countered...”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Boldness is rewarded. But what about all those girls, all those obedient girls who trusted and loved and wed and died? Weren't they bold, too?”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“He's handsome, but that makes his horribleness worse, somehow. As though he's taken something nice and made it awful. Being the single focus of his attention made me feel like a bug that a child was going to burn with a magnifying glass.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“She turned to me, head tilted, her expression pure confusion. As though I had no reason to be afraid of a broken heart. She had no idea how dangerous a broken heart could be.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“That’s your problem in a nutshell. You’re judgmental. Everyone makes mistakes. They trust the wrong people. They fall in love. Not you, though. And that’s why it’s so hard to ask you for forgiveness.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You must be particularly kind to people. Other kids can act like monsters, but not you.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Perhaps you shouldn’t trust me with your heart. I might break it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“But love was also transforming. I knew that from fairy tales. It could turn you back from a cat or a frog or a beast. Probably it could turn you into those things, too.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Everyone makes mistakes. They trust the wrong people. They fall in love.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.

Be good, but not too good. Be pretty, but not too pretty. Be honest, but not too honest. Maybe no one got lucky. Maybe it was too hard.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Wicked girl. Yet you let your sister take the brunt of my ire. That wasn’t very nice, was it?”
― Holly Black

“Come down, my beauty, my darling, my dove,”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters