Victoria Schwab Quotes

I live in a world where shadows have teeth. It's not a particularly relaxing environment. ~ Victoria Schwab

Rule number seven," he says. "Don't be nosy. ~ Victoria Schwab

It takes at least three assassination attempts to scare me off. And even then, if there are baked goods involved, I might come back. ~ Victoria Schwab

Nods and offers canned monosyables of support ... ~ Victoria Schwab

Nothing you ever do, Eli, is meant to be theoretical. I see it in you. ~ Victoria Schwab

She bounces off with all the enthusiasm of someone rushing toward cake, not corpses. ~ Victoria Schwab

Language is the most valuable currency. ~ Victoria Schwab

I want the things most people don't notice. The ring and the key and the way you have of wearing everything on the inside. ~ Victoria Schwab

And she was *happy*. The kind of happy that smoothed time into still frames. ~ Victoria Schwab

You wanted to feel alive, right? It doesn't matter if you're monster or human. Living hurts. ~ Victoria Schwab

His gaze settles on the discarded book. He leans, reaching until his fingertips graze Dante's Inferno, still on its bed of folded sheets. "What have we here?" he asks.
"Required reading," I say.
"It's a shame they do that," he says, thumbing through the pages. "Requirement ruins even the best of books. ~ Victoria Schwab

I do want it. I want you to stay. Time and disease are taking you from me. You've told me, made it clear, this is the only way I can keep you close. I will not lose that. ~ Victoria Schwab

I'm not going to die," she said. "Not till I've seen it."
"Seen what?"
Her smile widened. "Everything. ~ Victoria Schwab

Rule number six of friendship, Jacob. Friends don't leave friends in the dark. ~ Victoria Schwab

Just then, Rhy appeared, looking cheerfully drunk. "There you are!" he called, wrapping his arm around Kell's shoulders and hissing in his ear. "Hide. Princess Cora is hunting princes ... . ~ Victoria Schwab

What you can't see is always scarier than what you can. Your eyes play tricks on you, filling in the shadows, making shapes. ~ Victoria Schwab

There have been times when I've wavered. When I thought maybe I wanted to be normal. But the thing is, what we do, it's in our blood. It's who we are. Normal wouldn't fit us, even if we wanted to wear it. ~ Victoria Schwab

Now, as the party reached the royal hall the brothers shared, Tolners produced a note and held it up for Kell to read. "This isn't funny."
Apparently Rhy had had the grace to pin the note to his door, in case anyone in the palace should worry. "Not kidnapped. Out for a drink with Kell. Sit tight. ~ Victoria Schwab

The Archive means that the past is never gone. Never lost. Knowing that, it's freeing. It gave me permission to always look forward. After all, we have our own Histories to write. ~ Victoria Schwab

I will set you free, he says just before he buries the knife in my chest, and I wake up. ~ Victoria Schwab

Rhy clenched his teeth, fighting back a groan, but his stillness must have betrayed him; he felt Alucard smile against his skin. The man's fingers drifted to his tunic, deftly unbuttoning his collar so his kisses could continue downward, but Rhy felt him hesitate at the sight of the scar over his heart. "Someone has wounded you," he whispered into Rhy's collarbone. "Shall I make it better? ~ Victoria Schwab

Calling the Tuileries a garden is like calling Hogwarts a school. ~ Victoria Schwab

Caring about someone is scary, Mac. I know. Especially when you've lost people. It's easy to think it's not worth it. It's easy to think life will hurt less if you don't. But it's not life unless you care about it. ~ Victoria Schwab

You're trying to block out every bit of noise. But people are made of noise, Mac. The world is full of noise. And finding quiet isn't about pushing everything out. It's just about pulling yourself in. ~ Victoria Schwab

She couldn't break the orbit. ~ Victoria Schwab

If you don't show, I'm likely to do something foolish, like throw myself at Aluc- ~ Victoria Schwab

August groaned inwardly.

Mind over body.

Mind over body.

Mind over body over bodies on the floor over tallies seared day by day by day into skin until it cracked and broke and bled into the beat of gunfire and the melody of pain and the world was made of savage music, made and was made of, and that was the cycle, the big bang into the whimper and on and on and none of it was real except for August or all of it was real except for him. . . . ~ Victoria Schwab

That's what he told himself, over and over and over until he believed it, because truth wasn't the same thing as fact. It was personal. ~ Victoria Schwab

If these men worshipped anything, they worshipped magic, which she supposed would be heresy back in Grey London. But then again, Christians worshipped an old man in the sky, and if Lila had to say which one seemed more real at the moment, she'd have to side with magic. ~ Victoria Schwab

You sure have a lot of piercings for a guy with a needle phobia."
"I am the master of my fears ~ Victoria Schwab

Aunt Joan broke her hip a few years back. Don't get me wrong, she's still pretty damn fierce. Lightning fast with her cane, in fact. I've got the scars to prove it. ~ Victoria Schwab

The truth was a disastrous thing. ~ Victoria Schwab

―Self-righteousness,- Victor said. But when Sydney looked confused, he added, ―He heals. It's a reflexive ability. In his eyes, I think that makes it somehow pure. Divine. He can't technically use his power to hurt others.
―No,- said Sydney, ―he uses guns for that.
Victor chuckled. ~ Victoria Schwab

If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain?
He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that. ~ Victoria Schwab

But the very first rule of friendship is don't keep secrets. ~ Victoria Schwab

Isn't it strange? It's like after they die, you're only allowed to remember the good. But no one's all good. ~ Victoria Schwab

And he would be gone. Whatever he was made of--stardust or ash or life or death--would be gone. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. In with gunfire and out with smoke. And August wasn't ready to Dolly. Even if surviving wasn't simple, or easy, or fair.. Even if he could never be human. He wanted a chance to matter. He wanted to live. ~ Victoria Schwab

We do it, Jackson, because compassion must be louder than pride. ~ Victoria Schwab

Why would you even want to be human? We're fragile. We die."
"You also live. You don't spend every day wondering why you exist,but don't feel real, why you look human, but can't be. You don't do everything you can to be a good person only to have it constantly thrown in your face that you're not a person at all. ~ Victoria Schwab

It perplexed him, how someone about to play God could pray to Him, but it clearly didn't bother his friend. ~ Victoria Schwab

There's a big difference between can't and won't. ~ Victoria Schwab

I am broken the way most writers are, stories leaking through the cracks. ~ Victoria Schwab

People aren't smart when it comes to the dead. ~ Victoria Schwab

Rule one," she said, forcing her voice even, light. "Don't make friends. It never ends well." Riley rolled a soda can between his palms. "But doesn't it get lonely?" Kate smiled. It was so easy when you could lie. "No. ~ Victoria Schwab

I watch him fight back a smile and lose. What comes through isn't smug, or even crooked. It's proud. And I can't help it. I smile a little too. ~ Victoria Schwab

Home. The word still tastes like sandpaper in my mouth. But it makes Mom smile - a tired, true smile - so it's worth it. ~ Victoria Schwab

Nature is constantly growing, changing, one of the few things that can't hold memories. You forget how much clutter there is in the world, in the people and things, until you're surrounded by green. And even if they don't hear and see and feel the past the way I do, I wonder if normal people feel this too
the quiet. ~ Victoria Schwab

Silver linings, kids. I'm full of them. ~ Victoria Schwab

Stare too long at anything and you start to wonder. And where does wondering get you? Nowhere good. ~ Victoria Schwab

There's an empty shelf here with your name and dates?"

"There is. And it was beginning to sound nice. But then I got called in to this meeting. An induction ceremony. Some crazy old man and his granddaughter." He stands, guides me up beside him. "And I don't regret it. Now, go home. ~ Victoria Schwab

...when it comes to the strange and unexplained, it's important to keep an open mind. ~ Victoria Schwab

Scary, how easy it is to forget bad things. ~ Victoria Schwab

I am not a monster, that's what he wanted to say, but he couldn't. He hadn't found a way to make it true ~ Victoria Schwab

It's hard to believe in ghosts, until you see one, and then it's hard not to. ~ Victoria Schwab

I am Delilah Bard, she thought, as the ropes cut into her skin. I am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands. ~ Victoria Schwab

Things only hurt more when you can see them. ~ Victoria Schwab

Don't kill me tonight," she added as she led him into the dark. And he never even thought of it. ~ Victoria Schwab

I've been thinking."
"A dangerous pursuit."
"Indeed. ~ Victoria Schwab

Victor hated loud music almost as much as he hated crowds of drunk people. ~ Victoria Schwab

It was a stick-figure drawing. Two people holding hands. A thin man in black and a girl, half his height with short hair, and wide eyes. The stick-girl's head was cocked slightly, and a small red spot marked her arm. Three similar spots, no bigger than periods, dotted the stick-man's chest. The stick-man's mouth was nothing more than a faint grim line.

Beneath the drawing ran a single sentence: I made a friend. ~ Victoria Schwab

Kell managed an echo of her smile, and [Lila] gasped. "What's that on your face?"
The smile vanished. "What?"
"Never mind," she said, laughing. "It's gone. ~ Victoria Schwab

Four years of service, and the Archive is still so full of secrets - some big, like altering; some small, like this. The more of them I learn, the more I realize how little I know, and the more I wonder about the things I have been told. The rules I have been taught. ~ Victoria Schwab

He wanted to care, he wanted to care so badly, but there was this gap between what he felt and what he wanted to feel, a space where something important had been carved out. ~ Victoria Schwab

Dad says that the world is always changing, every second of every day, and so is everything in it, which means that the you you are right now is different from the you you were when you started reading this sentence. Crazy, right? And your memories change, too. (For instance, I swear the teddy bear I had growing up was green, but according to my parents it was orange.) But when you take a photograph, things stay still. The way that they were, is the way that they are, is the way that they will always be. ~ Victoria Schwab

He seems happier, lighter, after sharing his story. I feel a little heavier after hearing it, but that's okay. That's how friendship works. You learn to share the weight. ~ Victoria Schwab

There is a mirror across from me, and I check my reflection in it before heading home. Despite the bone-deep fatigue and the growing fear and frustration, I look ... fine. Da always said he'd teach me to play cards. Said I'd take the bank, the way things never reach my eyes. There should be something - a tell, a crease between my eyes, or a tightness in my jaw.
I'm too good at this.
Behind my reflection I see the painting of the sea, slanting as if the waves crashing on the rocks have hit with enough force to tip the picture. I turn and straighten it. The frame makes a faint rattling sound when I do. Everything in this place seems to be falling apart. ~ Victoria Schwab

What a mess. Truths are messy and lies are messy, and I don't care what Da said, it's impossible to cut a person into pielike pieces, neat and tidy. ~ Victoria Schwab

He leans in, resting his weathered hand on the bed. Treat all the bad things like dreams, Kenzie. That way, no matter how scary or dark they get, you just have to survive until you wake up. ~ Victoria Schwab

He guided her back against a hedge, and kissed her breathless. The wind sang through the garden, tangling in her dress and his cloak, whipping around them both as his hands, more smoke than skin, wrapped around her waist and her hands, flesh and bone, wrapped around his back and–– ~ Victoria Schwab

Why did everyone have to ruin the quiet by asking questions? The truth was a disastrous thing. ~ Victoria Schwab

The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence. ~ Victoria Schwab

I just wanted to start over.
Have you ever done that?
It's freeing, at first, like shedding a heavy coat. And then you get cold, and you realize life's not a coat at all. It's skin. It's something you can't take off without losing yourself, too. ~ Victoria Schwab

It was a cycle of whimpers and bangs, gruesome beginnings and bloody ends. ~ Victoria Schwab

We are welcomed to your city, added Princess Cora with a curtsy and a cherubic smile.
Kell shot Rhy a look that said, 'Honestly? This is the girl you're so afraid of?'
Rhy shot him one back that said, 'You should be, too'. ~ Victoria Schwab

Didn't know that when sound was taken from you, you had to find ways to take it back. ~ Victoria Schwab

There were some people you had to stay away from, people who poisoned everything in reach. Then there were people you wanted to stick with, the ones with silver tongues and golden touched. And then, there were people you stood beside, because it meant you weren't in their way. And whoever Victor Vale was, whatever he was, and whatever he was up to, the only thing Mitch knew was that he did not want to be in his way. ~ Victoria Schwab

Agatha has a dangerous ease about her. She's the kind of person you want to like you. ~ Victoria Schwab

Being. Not being. Giving in. Holding out. No matter what I do, it hurts. ~ Victoria Schwab

It's okay to not be okay," she says. "When you've been through things - whatever those things are - and you don't allow yourself to not be okay, then you only make it worse. Our problems will tear us apart if we try to ignore them. They demand attention because they need it. ~ Victoria Schwab

Thrones make tyrants of us all. (Vortalis, A Conjuring of Light) ~ Victoria Schwab

Looking for trouble, he'd say. You're gonna look til you find it.
Trouble is the looker, she'd answer. It keeps looking till it finds you. Might as well find it first.
Why do you want to die?
I don't, she'd say. I just want to live. ~ Victoria Schwab

What do you want?" chided Leo. "To be ordinary? To be human?" He said the word as if it stained his tongue.

"Better human than a monster," he muttered.

Leo's jaw tightened. "Take heed, little brother," he said. "Do not lump us in with those base creatures. We are not Corsai, swarming like insects. We are not Malchai, feeding like beasts. Sunai are justice. Sunai are balance. Sunai are - "

"Self-righteous and prone to speaking in third person?" cut in August before he could stop himself. ~ Victoria Schwab

What you feel, Cassidy Blake, is called a purpose. ~ Victoria Schwab

I wish you wouldn't indulge him," said the Prince Regent, whose name was also George (Kell found the Grey London habit of sons taking father's name both redundant and confusing) with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It gets his spirits up."
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Kell.
"For him, yes. He'll be in a frenzy later. Dancing on the tables talking of magic and other Londons. What trick did you do for him this time? Convince him he could fly?"
Kell had only made that mistake once. ~ Victoria Schwab

But plans and realities were different things. Plans were crisp, clean - the stuff of paper and drill - and realities, August had learned, were always, always, always messy. ~ Victoria Schwab

A person chose their path. Or they made a new one. ~ Victoria Schwab

This was a chance for Rhy to shine, not only as a jewel, but as a sword. He had always been a symbol of wealth. He wanted to be a symbol of power. Magic was power, of course, but it wasn't the only kind. Rhy told himself he could still be strong without it. ~ Victoria Schwab

People could only hurt you if you cared enough to let them. ~ Victoria Schwab

One of the cardinal rules of lying is to never, if it can be prevented, involve someone else in your story, because you can't control them. Which is why I want to punch myself when the lie that falls from my lips is, To hang out with Wesley. ~ Victoria Schwab

Nobody gets to stay the same. ~ Victoria Schwab

By the time Mitch got out of jail, he looked more the part than ever. The imposing teen had graduated into a towering adult, flecked with the first of many tattoos. Once out, he lasted a month and a half before the curse caught back up with him. He'd gotten a job in food distribution, mostly because he could unload four times the weight of any other guy on the truck, and because he liked physical work. He might be mentally cut out for a desk job, but he doubted he'd fit behind most desks. And everything was going smoothly - shitty apartment and shitty pay but all legally valid - until a man was beaten to death a few blocks from where his crew was unloading peaches. The cops took one look at Mitch and booked him. No bloody knuckles, and two coworkers to swear he had his arms full of fruit the whole time, and none of it mattered. Mitch went straight back to prison. ~ Victoria Schwab

Da thought of people as books to be read, but I've always thought of them more as formulas- full of variables, but always the sum of their parts. ~ Victoria Schwab

It's important to take care of the past. To revisit it, to study and learn. Understanding the past helps us move through the present and discover the future. ~ Victoria Schwab

He was no longer wondering whether or not he'd made a mistake. He was certain. Certain that in twenty-two years of life, this was the worst plan he had ever come up with. This was the wrong method, the fading, rational part of Victor said, the part that had been studying adrenaline and pain and fear. He shouldn't have washed the amphetamines down with whiskey, shouldn't have done anything to dull the nerves and senses, to ease the process, but he'd been nervous … afraid. Now he was going numb, and that scared him more than pain because it meant he might just … fade.

Fade right into death without noticing.

This was wrong wrong wrong … but that voice was drifting off, replaced by a spreading, sinking -

It could work. ~ Victoria Schwab

He fought the men and he slayed the monsters and he bested the gods, and at last the hero, having conquered all, earned the thing that he wanted most. To go home. ~ Victoria Schwab

Funny, she thought, that even monsters had fragile hearts. ~ Victoria Schwab

Alucard snaked an arm possessively around his shoulders and brought his lips to the prince's neck, just below his ear. Rhy actually shivered.
"You are far too familiar with your prince," he warned.
"So you confess it, then?" His brushed his lips against Rhy's throat. "That you are mine. ~ Victoria Schwab

Truth be told, Victor didn't care for graveyards, either. He didn't like dead people, mostly because he had no effect on them. Sydney, conversely, didn't like dead people because she had such a marked effect on them. ~ Victoria Schwab

And you?" asked Kate. "Your brother is righteous, your sister is scattered. What does that make you?"
When August answered, the word was small, almost too quiet to hear. "Lost." He exhaled, and it seemed to take more than air out of him. "I'm what happens when a kid is so afraid of the world he lives in that he escapes the only way he knows how. Violently. ~ Victoria Schwab

And besides, if my soul's impeccable taste in music throws you off, then learn to tune me out. ~ Victoria Schwab