Darren Shan Quotes

People need devils and dark gods, if only to give them a foe to rally against, an obstacle to overcome. Your people understood that there can be no light without darkness, no good without evil, no triumph without setbacks. You can't kill me because I'm part of all that you are, all you've done and plan to do. You don't have to like me. You can even loathe me. But you must accept me. ~ Darren Shan

One night of slavery is too much. ~ Darren Shan

Crooked, grasping, evil-hearted people were easy to find. Honest, concerned, self-sacrificing people were harder to come by. ~ Darren Shan

An assistant could be just what the witch doctor ordered. ~ Darren Shan

We all have to do things we don't like in life. ~ Darren Shan

I choose not to fight - it doesn't mean I can't! I'm no heroic vampire, but I'm not the useless coward many think I am."

"If you fought more often, they wouldn't think that," I noted.

"True," he admitted. "But their opinion doesn't matter." Kurda put his fingers on my chest and pressed softly down on my heart. "In here is where a man should judge himself, not on bars or in a ring or on a battlefield. If you know in your heart that you're true and brave, that should be enough. ~ Darren Shan

You mean I might end up like you one day?" I asked, alarmed at the thought of sounding so serious and stuffy.
"You might," Mr Crepsley said, "though I would not bet on it. Seba commanded my utmost respect, so I tried hard to copy what he did. You, on the other hand, seem to be determined to do the opposite of everything I say."
"I'm not that bad," I grinned, but there was some grain of truth in his words. I'd always been stubborn. I admired Mr Crepsley more than he knew, but hated the idea of looking like a pushover who did everything he was told. Sometimes I disobeyed the vampire just so he wouldn't think I was paying attention to what he said! ~ Darren Shan

I know who the demon thief is - it's me! ~ Darren Shan

Quick! Head for the ground floor! We have to get out! We will die if we stay! The vampires are here!"
"Haven't you got a hug for me, Larten, old buddy? ~ Darren Shan

I used to imagine the spider creeping down, crawling into my mouth, sliding down my throat, and laying loads of eggs in my belly. The Baby spiders would hatch after a while and eat me alive, from the inside out ~ Darren Shan

Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins. ~ Darren Shan

I will not make you a vampire," Mr. Crepsley insisted. "You must forget about it. Go home and get on
with your life."
"No!" Steve screamed. "I won't forget!" He stumbled to his feet and pointed a shaking ringer at the tall,
ugly vampire. "I'll get you for this," he promised. "I don't care how long it takes. One day, Vur Horston,
I'll track you down and kill you for rejecting me!"
Steve jumped from the stage and ran toward the exit. "One day!" he called back over his shoulder, and I
could hear him laughing as he ran, a crazy kind of laugh. ~ Darren Shan

When he faced me again, he looked ashamed of himself. "I have gravely underestimated you, Darren," he said. "I will not do so again. I made a wiser choice than I realized when I chose you to serve as my assistant. I feel honoured to have you by my side. ~ Darren Shan

I've never met a politician who didn't deserve to be tossed into a pit full of Kallin, Beranabus grunts. ~ Darren Shan

The hands of Fate keep time on a heart-shaped watch.
- Harkat Mulds(The Trials of Death) ~ Darren Shan

I've lived and seen enough to know how difficult it is to settle for a small life when you're destined for greatness. ~ Darren Shan

But the universe isn't fair. Things don't work out neatly, pain, hardship and challenges divided equally among those best equipped to deal with them. Sometimes individuals have to be Atlases and carry the weight of the world alone. It shouldn't happen that way, but it does. ~ Darren Shan

I will conduct myself with all due decorum." Mr. Crepsley said pompously, then added beneath his breath, "but I will miss her. With all my heart and soul, I miss her. ~ Darren Shan

The easy way is not always the right way. ~ Darren Shan

If they decide... to kill you, will you... let them?"

"I won't be able to stop them," I answered.

"But will you... go quietly?"

"I'm not sure," I sighed. "If they'd taken me right after the fight, I'd have gone without a murmur - I was pumped up with adrenaline and wasn't scared of dying. Now that I've calmed down, I'm dreading it. I hope I'll go with my head held high, but I'm afraid I'll cry and beg for mercy. ~ Darren Shan

The world won't end with a bang or a whimper. It'll end with the death screams of a thousand demons and a defiant, carefree, savage, wolfen howl. ~ Darren Shan

So easy to take it for granted, but this is something no normal human was made to see. The world of magic has blessed me with wonders and it's only right to stop every now and then to appreciate it. ~ Darren Shan

If I'd known how wrong I was - if I'd had any idea of the awful night that lay ahead - I'd have run after him and never returned to that disgusting circus of blood, that revolting circus of death. ~ Darren Shan

I stop reading after half an hour. I've had enough. Humanity has hit a brick wall. We're facing our end, like the dinosaurs millions of years before us. The only difference is we've got journalists on hand to document every blow and setback, cataloguing our rapid, painful downfall in vibrant, vicious detail. Personally, I think the dinosaurs had the better deal. When it comes to impending, unavoidable extinction, ignorance is bliss. ~ Darren Shan

Do you think that guy's sweet on her?" I asked, pointing to the grey-spotted spider, momentarily forgetting my darker concerns.

"Most certainly." Seba grinned. "I do not think spiders know love as we do. But he remained by her side throughout the fighting and did not leave when she decided to stay. I think they wish to couple."

I smiled at the absurd notion of Madam Octa walking down an aisle in a tiny white dress, Mr. Crepsley waiting at the end to give her away. ~ Darren Shan

You can't save everyone.
It's not an option. ~ Darren Shan

Who's going to help me and Bec kick some Shadow ass? -Page 172 ~ Darren Shan

Shark snorts. Hope? What's that? I heard about it once, in a fairy tale. ~ Darren Shan

To be added when I get it cause I just realised I don't have it at the moment. ~ Darren Shan

Alive is better than dead. Always. ~ Darren Shan

Look at me!" I roar. "Do you think you'll be the first I've killed today? I wasn't a murderer, but you changed me. I'm a monster now. And I'm hungry." "Meera!" Anotoine whines. "Prae! Please, I beg you. You're civilised people. Help me!" "We can't," Prae says coldly. "Even if we wanted to - and personally I have no problem with him gutting you - we couldn't. He's not ours to control. He's one of your specimens. You helped create him - now you have to deal with him ~ Darren Shan

Life is a challenge" he once told me, "and only those who rise to the challenge truly know what it means to live. ~ Darren Shan

Book sales and teens reading is always a fantastic thing, but we should also be celebrating and consuming the huge wealth of U.K. and U.K.-based writing and illustrating talent. Authors such as Charlie Higson, Darren Shan, Holly Smale, Tanya Byrne, Catherine Johnson, Sophie Mckenzie, to name but a few. ~ Malorie Blackman

dressed to kill Koyasan ~ Darren Shan

I know the names of every intelligent being, the spots on the wings of every butterfly that broke out of a cocoon, the genetic codes of the simplest and most complex of creatures. I know how suns functioned, how worlds formed, how life evolved. All of the secrets of the old universes are mine. They can be yours too, if you want me to share, though I suspect you aren't bothered. ~ Darren Shan

I do not mock the beliefs of others. This world is large enough for a thousand religions. Every race has the right to its own. ~ Darren Shan

Better to Die in Honour than to live in Shame. -Arra Sails ~ Darren Shan

War," Beranabus murmurs, face crinkling. "Most humans know nothing of true warfare. They wage their silly territorial battles, kill each other ruthlessly and freely, and consider themselves experts on war and suffering. But the real war has always been ahead of them, unseen, unimagined. Enemies who can't be killed by normal weapons, who have their base in an alternate universe, who are interested only in slaughtering every living being on the face of the planet. ~ Darren Shan

The demons were scary, but girls - Well, girls are really terrifying ~ Darren Shan

The hunger inside us must be fed to be controlled. ~ Darren Shan

I like the 'Cirque du Freak' books - 'Tunnel of Blood' by Darren Shan. They're set in England. It's about vampires. ~ Jamie Waylett

Better not to start down a wrong path at all than head down it in the hope of making a detour when something better came along. ~ Darren Shan

A world without pain, loss, betrayal, hate, death, loneliness? Impossible! ~ Darren Shan

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
- Harkat Mulds (Hunters of the Dusk) ~ Darren Shan

I was lucky because my mum was a teacher and showed me how to read and write. But most importantly, she encouraged me to use my imagination. ~ Darren Shan

I won't die. I won't give those ghouls the pleasure. I'll live and grow strong. I'll escape, then hunt them down and make them suffer. ~ Darren Shan

I think sometimes parents and teachers can push children away from reading by telling them it's something they must do, the same way they must eat their greens and must pass their exams in school. Poppycock! Read or don't read - that's your call. ~ Darren Shan

With such a small brain, I don't know how you made it this far. ~ Darren Shan

Did you hear it?"
"Just about," I said, trembling nervously.
"That's not good enough." She frowned. "Just about will kill you. ~ Darren Shan

After all, in this world of humans, he was little better than a monster, and what did a monster have to be afraid of in the dark? ~ Darren Shan

You stole from a member of the undead ~ Darren Shan

I stopped, realizing what Truska wanted me to see. My eyes didn't just look sad - they were completely empty of life and hope. Even Mr Crepsley's eyes, as he died, hadn't looked that lost. I knew now what Truska meant when she said the living could be dead too.

"Larten not want this," she murmured in my ear as I stared at the hollow eyes in the mirror. "He love life. He want you to love it too. What would he say if he saw this alive-but-dead gaze that will get worse if you not stop?"

"He...he..." I gulped deeply.

"Empty is no good," Truska said. "You must fill eyes, if not with joy, then with sadness and pain. Even hate is better than empty. ~ Darren Shan

You are a creature of the darkness, the same as myself and Mr. Dowling. Like us, I fear that you will end up destined to play a cruel, vicious part in the shaping of the future. Some of us cannot escape the damnable reach of fate. ~ Darren Shan

The message of 'Zomb-B' is that you have to listen to your own heart and head and question everything. Question stereotypes and the way the world seems or is being presented. Some of the people we should be most concerned about, dangerous right-wing bigots, sound convincing and reasonable. ~ Darren Shan

Too easily impressed," Evanna tutted, resuming her former appearance. "You shouldn't judge by what's on the outside. Only a fool falls for a pretty face. Are you fools? ~ Darren Shan

She was a beautiful woman." Gavner sighed, tracing the outline of one of the elephants. "She just had very bad taste in underwear ... "
"And in boyfriends," I added impishly.
Mr. Crepsley burst into laughter at that ~ Darren Shan

Her fear was infectious, and though I was too young to truly know terror, I felt it in my heart and trembled. ~ Darren Shan

Reading has always been the great love of my life. ~ Darren Shan

I had to go along with them. Indecision is the source of chaos, as Paris Skyle used to say. ~ Darren Shan

Wars raged everywhere as men found new, inventive ways to kill even more of their race. It was like a contest, the many tribes of mankind competing to see who could commit the worst atrocities. ~ Darren Shan

Ever hear of the phrase, Banging you're head on a brick wall?
Ah, but you forget, Darren, vampires can break brick walls with their heads. ~ Darren Shan

I've spent enough time on the dead. Time to return to the business of the living and those caught in-between. ~ Darren Shan

As the fight wore on, it became obvious that Streak was beating the other wolf. He wasn't as heavily built, but he was faster and sharper, and for every swipe to the head he took, he delivered two or three of his own.

All of a sudden, the dark wolf stopped, lay down, and rolled over, baring his throat and belly. Streak opened his mouth and clamped his teeth around the dark wolf's throat, then let go without breaking the skin and stood back. The dark wolf got to his feet and slunk away, tail between his legs.

I thought the wolf might have to leave the pack, but he didn't. Although he slept by himself that night, none of the wolves tried to chase him away, and he took his regular place in the hunting pack the next time they set out.

I thought about that a lot over the next day or two, comparing the way wolves handled their losers to how vampires handled theirs. In the world of vampires, defeat was a disgrace and more often than not ended with the death of the defeated. Wolves were more understanding. Honor mattered to them, but they wouldn't kill or shun a member of their pack just because it had lost face. Young wolf cubs had to endure tests of maturity, just as I'd endured the Trials of Initiation, but they weren't killed if they failed. ~ Darren Shan

Death is the worst this world can throw at you, Darren
if you accept it, it has no power over you. ~ Darren Shan

My eyes! I'm blind! ~ Darren Shan

If he comes in the dark, then it's KYAG Time! - Harkat Mulds (The Lake of Souls) ~ Darren Shan

The only way to learn and hone your craft is by working hard and writing regularly. ~ Darren Shan

Cirque du Freak' is the best vampire series ever. ~ Darren Shan

Kernel grins. "To the death, Master Grady?"
"To the death, Master Fleck," I grin back.
Then we both say together, "But not ours! ~ Darren Shan

Death is not the end. It is a midway state. ~ Darren Shan

You thought I was a werewolf?" Dervish asks.
"Yes" I answer hollowly.
"You ass. ~ Darren Shan

Two strong futures lie ahead, each as possible as the other. It's rare for fate to boil down to two such evenly matched eventualities. Normally the paths of the future are many. When two exist like this, chance decides which the world will take. ~ Darren Shan

You didn't want to die. Most mortals don't, even if they find themselves in as desolate and soul-destroying a spot as you. Almost all of those who take their own lives wish at the last moment that they hadn't. They see at the end how much they've given up, how precious life is, even when it's treated them like dirt and crushed their dreams. Many think they've passed beyond hope, but they never really have, not until they pass beyond life itself. Alas, that knowledge comes too late for most would-be-suicides and they die with regret. Very few are offered the chance that you have been handed. ~ Darren Shan

Our eyes were on the Other-world, the stars, the gods.
We didn't keep watch on the world around us.
And when we eventually lowered our heads and studied the waters closer to home, it was too late. ~ Darren Shan

I can give you two words," I tell him. "The second is off. Can you guess the first? ~ Darren Shan

I mean, seriously, what lady of taste could resist a shiny green
head of hair like mine? ~ Darren Shan

I grew up on all sorts of horror - Hammer Horror and Vincent Price's 'Theatre Of Blood.' I loved the hidden, scary layers, but there wasn't that much around for youngsters in terms of horror books. I can remember reading Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot' and 'Cujo,' but I thought there should be more for teenaged horror fans. ~ Darren Shan

One of the things I wanted to do with my own books was bridge the gap between 'Goosebumps' and adult horror. ~ Darren Shan

I don't like you," Debbie snarled. "You're cocky and arrogant."

"You don't have to like me," Steve retorted. "This isn't a popularity contest. It's a matter of life and death. ~ Darren Shan

The pain didn't bother me. In fact, I welcome it: It meant I was alive. ~ Darren Shan

The moon's a powerful mistress. She can reach through any wall or covering and work her wicked charms. ~ Darren Shan

Yes?" she asked, eyeing me guardedly.
I struck out a hand and said "Shake."
Arra stared at the hand, then into my unfocused eyes. "One good fight doesn't make you a warrior," she said.
"Shake!" I repeated angrily.
"And if I don't?" she asked.
"I'll get back up on the bars and fight you till you do," I growled.
Arra studied me at length, then nodded and took my hand. "Power to you, Darren Shan," she said gruffly.
"Power," I repeated weakly, then fainted into her arms and knew no more till I came to in my hammock the next night. ~ Darren Shan

You have to ignore risks, put your brain on hold and follow your instincts, even when your head insists you do otherwise. Sometimes you got burned. I've signed many times. Roasted once or twice. You have to live with the fire. Because if you start thinking too much or playing safe, you're lost to its wondrous charms forever. You become part of the real world again, the mundane, the ordinary, from where there's no escape. (The Cardinal to Capac Raimi) ~ Darren Shan

Stick it up your crack, you warped son of a mutant b*tch! ~ Darren Shan

A greyish substance that might be blood. Remembering the spray I caught earlier, I wipe a hand across my face and it comes away wet and sticky with the same grey liquid. "I'd kill for a shower," I mutter, chuckling darkly at the sick joke. Juni cuts a long, jagged line through the creature's flesh, ~ Darren Shan

It's one thing to go into a fight knowing you'll probably lose. Quite another to be told that to win, you must offer up your throat to be slit. ~ Darren Shan

In the beginning Grubbs created the heavens and the earth, and everything was dark. Then Grubbs said, 'Let there be light!'"
And there was light.
Coolio! ~ Darren Shan

You can't hang around waiting for somebody else to pull your strings. Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you. And if it throws more than you'd like, more than you think you can handle? Well then you just have to find the heroism within yourself and play out the hand you've been dealt. The universe never sets a challenge that can't be met. You just need to believe in yourself in order to find the strength to face it. ~ Darren Shan

Trust one fool to see no flaws in another! ~ Darren Shan

If mankind's destined to bite the bullet, let's bite it and be damned. ~ Darren Shan

It'll be like a game of chess. We can let the game unfold as it did before, but if we want to avoid checkmate, we'll have to readjust the pieces a few moves shy of the finish. ~ Darren Shan

Even in death may you be triumphant. ~ Darren Shan

When Larten heard that Alicia had married, he felt both jealousy and delight. A selfish part of him had hoped she'd mourn for him the rest of her life. But mostly he was happy that she'd found someone who could give her all that he had failed to provide. ~ Darren Shan

I'm hungry," he whimpered instead.
"Food is on its way."
"No," he said. "The other kind of hunger."
P198 ~ Darren Shan

Though I'm tempted by the call of the sea, I resist.
It can't claim me.
In a way I'm stronger than the waves and I feel good about that. ~ Darren Shan

The dead are the best listeners in the world. The corpse takes it all in, never interrupts, doesn't criticize me, lets me waffle on for as long as I like. ~ Darren Shan

It is too easy to say 'what if' and paint a picture of a perfect world. ~ Darren Shan

Are cobwebs a treat where you come from? ~ Darren Shan

Do not be such a baby," he jeered, tugging my hands free.
"It hurts!" I howled.
"Of course it does." He laughed. "It hurt me too. Did you think becoming a vampire was easy? Get used to the pain. Much of it lies ahead. ~ Darren Shan

You do not have to be alone. The world never inflicts loneliness upon us. That is something we choose or reject by ourselves. ~ Darren Shan