Victoria Schwab Quotes & Sayings

The beautiful thing about books was that anyone could open them. — Victoria Schwab

His lips linger on mine, urgent and warm.
Lasting.
And then he pulls away, breath ragged. His hand falls from my skin, and I understand.
He's not wearing his ring.
He didn't just kiss me.
He read me. — Victoria Schwab

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

What do schools do that for?" he grumbles. "What's the point of summer if they give you homework?"
"Exactly! — Victoria Schwab

I pull the key from around my neck and slip it into the hole beneath my brother's card. It doesn't turn. It never turns. But I never stop trying. — 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

Word of mouth was its own kind of magic. — Victoria Schwab

The Archive makes us monsters. And then it breaks the ones who get too strong, and buries the ones who know too much. — Victoria Schwab

Funny how when we start to tell a secret, we can't stop. Something falls open in us, and the sheer momentum of letting go pushes us on. — 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

Why did you take this job?" I ask. "It doesn't make sense. You're so young - "
"It was an honor to be promoted," she says, but the words have a hollow ring. I can see her drawing back into herself, into her role.
"Who did you lose?" I ask.
Carmen flashes a smile that is at once dazzling and sad. "I'm a Librarian, Miss Bishop. I've lost everyone. — Victoria Schwab

The worse thing you can do in a fight is stop moving. When someone attacks, they create force, movement, momentum, but you'll be okay as long as you can see and feel the direction of that force and travel with it. — 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

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. — Victoria Schwab

Did you know that when you take away a person's fear of pain, you take away their fear of death? You make them, in their own eyes, immortal. Which of course they're not, but what's the saying? We are all immortal until proven otherwise? — Victoria Schwab

Ignorance may be bliss, but only if it outweighs curiosity. Curiosity is a gateway drug to sympathy. — Victoria Schwab

His eyes found hers in the dark. They were a storm of blue and grey, at times bright and at others almost colorless. He tipped his head wordlessly in the direction of his chambers, and she followed. — Victoria Schwab

I mean, most people want to escape. Get out of their heads. Out of their lives. Stories are the easiest way to do that. — Victoria Schwab

My father taught me how to track, how to read the ground and the trees. He taught me that everything has a language, that if you knew the language, you could make the world talk. The grass and the dirt hold secrets, he'd say. The wind and the water carry stories and warnings. — Victoria Schwab

Only fools and cowards scorned fear. Fear keeps you alive. — Victoria Schwab

The two had been in each other's company for a long time. They knew when the other wanted to talk, and when they wanted to think. The only problem was that more often than not, Victor wanted to think, and more often than not, Mitch wanted to talk. — Victoria Schwab

Now, as I look around at a room filled not only with boxes but plenty of its own marks, I want to know the stories behind them. Or rather, a part of me wants to know those stories. The other part of me thinks that's the worst idea in the world, but I don't listen to that part. Ignorance may be bliss, but only if it outweighs curiosity. Curiosity is a gateway drug to sympathy, Da's warning echoes in my head, and I know; but there are no Histories here to feel sympathy for. Which is exactly why the Archive wouldn't approve. They don't approve of any form of recreational reading. — Victoria Schwab

Perhaps power had to be tended, like Tieren said, but not all things grew in gardens. Plenty of plants grew wild. And Lila had always thought of herself more as a weed than a rose bush. — Victoria Schwab

Aren't you afraid of dying?" he asked Lila now.
She looked at him as if it were a strange question. And then she shook her head. "Death comes for everyone," she said simply. "I'm not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of dying here." She swept her hand over the room, the tavern, the city. "I'd rather die on an adventure than live standing still. — Victoria Schwab

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

Lying is easy. But it's lonely."
"What do you mean?"
"When you lie to everyone about everything, what's left? What's true?"
"Nothing," I say.
"Exactly. — Victoria Schwab

All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective. — Victoria Schwab

My heart sinks. I guess I should be glad he doesn't care, but I'm not. He's supposed to care. Mom cares so much, it's smothering; but that doesn't mean he's allowed to do this, to check out. And suddenly I need him to care. I need him to give me something so I know he's still here, still Dad. — Victoria Schwab

The wind took hold of whatever I felt, and ran away with it. — 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

Lying is easy. But it's lonely. — Victoria Schwab

WESLEY AYERS is the stranger in the halls of the Coronado. He is the Keeper in the garden who shares my secret. He is the boy who reads me books. He is the one who teaches me how to touch. — Victoria Schwab

I can see him juggling the words inside his head. Fumbling. I tried to juggle once, with three apples I'd found in the pantry. But I just ended up bruising them all so badly my mother had to make apple bread. The whole time I was trying, I kept getting lost in the movements. I couldn't concentrate on all of them at once.
I wish Cole would give me an apple. And then he looks at me, and there's that same sad, almost smile, like he's decided to pass me one, but he knows I can't juggle either. Like there's no reason for both of us to bruise things any more than needed.
I hold out my hand. Let me help. — Victoria Schwab

You wanted strength."
"I still want it," Rhy whispered. "Every day. I wake up wanting to be a stronger person. A better prince. A worthy king. That want, it's like a fire in my chest. And then, there are these moments, these horrible, icy moments when I remember what I did ... " His hand drifted to his heart. "To myself. To you. To my kingdom. And it hurts ... ." His voice trembled. "More than dying ever did. There are days when I don't feel like I deserve this." He tapped the soul seal. "I deserve to be ... " He trailed off, but Kell could feel his brother's pain, as though it were a physical thing. — Victoria Schwab

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
In with gunfire and out with smoke. — 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

But the teacher had been right about one thing: violence breeds.
Someone pulls a trigger, sets off a bomb, drives a bus full of tourists off a bridge, and what's left in the wake isn't just she'll casings, wreckage, bodies. There's something else. Something bad. An aftermath. A recoil. A reaction to all that anger and pain and death. — Victoria Schwab

Tonight, you're going to learn to influence two elements simultaneously."
"I can't believe you ruined a bottle of avise wine."
"I told you magic was a conversation - "
"You also said it was an ocean," said Lila. "And a door, and once I think you even called it a cat - "
"Well, tonight we're calling it a conversation. We're simply adding another participant. The same power, different lines."
"I've never been able to pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time."
"Well then, this should be interesting. — Victoria Schwab

I want to believe that there's more. That we could be more. Hell, we could be heroes. — Victoria Schwab

Every weakness exposes flesh," he'd said, "and flesh invites a knife. — Victoria Schwab

Perhaps it is in our best interest to... to surrender rather than waste words. — Victoria Schwab

Her bare feet land with light thuds like rain on stones. — Victoria Schwab

Picking the best solution really depended on your definition of best. — Victoria Schwab

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

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

The bodies in my floor all trusted someone. Now I walk on them to tea. — Victoria Schwab

Sight is an important thing, August. Without it, our minds invent, and the things they invent are almost always worse than the truth. It's important that they see us. See you. It's important that they know you're on their side. — Victoria Schwab

You have a house if not a home," she spat. "You have people who care for you if not about you. You may not have everything you want, but I'd wager you have everything you could ever need, and you have the audacity to claim it all forfeit because it is not love."
"I--"
"Love doesn't keep us from freezing to death, Kell," she continued, "or starving, or being knifed for the coins in our pocket. Love doesn't buy us anything, so be glad for what you have and who you have because you may want for things but you need nothing. — Victoria Schwab

Like everything was real, but nothing mattered. — Victoria Schwab

All he knew was that he was a body in search of motion. — Victoria Schwab

I didn't stop fighting," he said, the words so low he worried Kate wouldn't hear them, but she did. "I just got tired of losing. It's easier this way."

"Of course it's easier," said Kate. "that doesn't mean it's right. — Victoria Schwab

t was amazing how easy it was to think in straight lines when he was in motion, even without his violin. — Victoria Schwab

Are you going to be okay?" I close my eyes. "I don't know, Wes. Everything hurts. I don't know how to make it stop. It hurts when I breathe. It hurts when I think. I feel like I'm drowning, and it's my fault, and I don't know how to be okay. I don't know if I can be okay. I don't know if I should be allowed to be okay. — Victoria Schwab

Lila Bard knew in her bones that she was meant to be a pirate. — Victoria Schwab

They have little in common, save for their geography, and the fact that each has a version of this city straddling this river on this island country, and in each, that city is called London. — Victoria Schwab

I've always been good at math. It's straightforward, black-and-white, right and wrong. Equations. 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. That's what their noise is, really: all of a person's components layered messily over one another. Thought and feeling and memory and all of it unorganized, until a person dies. Then it all gets compiled, straightened out into this linear thing, and you see exactly what the various parts add up to. What they equal. — 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

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

...something more than the sum of its parts- — Victoria Schwab

The prince shrugged. Who needs magic when you look this good? — Victoria Schwab

When no one understands, that's usually a good sign that you're wrong. — Victoria Schwab

Fear is strange thing. It has the power to make people close their eyes, turn away. Nothibg good grows out of fear. — Victoria Schwab

People were messy. They were defined not only by what they'd done, but by what they would have done, under different circumstances, molded as much by their regrets as their actions, choices they stood by and those they wished they could undo. Of course, there was no going back - time only moved forward - but people could change.

For worse.

And for better.

It wasn't easy. The world was complicated. Life was hard. And so often, living hurt.

So make it worth the pain. — Victoria Schwab

It was a game she sometimes played, ever since she learned about the theory of infinite parallels, the idea that a person's path through life wasn't really a line, but a tree, every decision a divergent branch, resulting in a divergent you. — Victoria Schwab

Monsters," he said slowly, "all want the same thing: to feed. They are united by that common goal, while you are all divided by your morals and your pride. What do I think? I think that if you cannot come together, you cannot win. — Victoria Schwab

But all cities were icebergs, the real power underneath — Victoria Schwab

For one, dazzling, infinite moment, August felt like he was standing on a precipice, the end of one world and the beginning of another, a whisper and a bang. — Victoria Schwab

It becomes a game, whispered and breathless.
"I hide who I am."
"I fight with the dead."
"I lie to the living."
"I am alone. — Victoria Schwab

What are you looking for?" he asked. A car alarm was going off in the distance, and he cringed as if the sound were deafening.

"A ride," she answered. Some of the cars were too new, others too old. She finally stopped in front of a black sedan, nice enough, but not one of the models with fancy security and keyless entry.

"Break that for me," she said, nodding at the driver's side door.

"The window?" asked August, and she gave him a look that said yes, obviously the window, and he gave her a look that said I don't commit petty crimes very often before he slammed his elbow into the glass to shatter it. — 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

Kell has only two faces. The one he wears for the world at large, and the one he wears for those he loves." He sipped his wine.
"For us." Lila's expression hardened. "Whatever he feels for me, it isn't love."
"Because it isn't soft and sweet and doting?" Rhy rocked back, stretching against the pillar. "Do you know how many times he's nearly beat me senseless out of love? How many times I've done the same? I've seen the way he looks at those he hates ... " He shook his head. "There are very few things my brother cares about, and even fewer people. — Victoria Schwab

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

Sydney's arms were beginning to ache from lifting the shovel, but for the first time in a year, she wasn't cold. Her cheeks burned, and she was sweating through her coat, and she felt alive.
As far as she was concerned, that was the only good thing about digging up a corpse. — Victoria Schwab

But there was something else, too, a strange excitement at the idea of playing normal, and every time he tried to untangle how he felt, he just ended up in knots. — Victoria Schwab

I can see why my daughter likes you."
"Do you think she's falling for my dashing good looks, my charm, or the fact that I supply her with pastries? — Victoria Schwab

Wesley's touch lingers on my skin. His music echoes through my head. I remind myself as I scrub my skin that we are both liars and con artists. That we will always have secrets, some that bind us and some that cut between us, slicing us into pieces. — Victoria Schwab

He was dressed in clothes that had clearly never seen the sea. A dark blue suit, accented by a silver cloak, his rich brown hair groomed and threaded with gems to match. A single sapphire sparkled over his right eye. Those eyes, like night lilies caught in moonlight. He used to smell like them, too. Now he smelled like sea breeze and spice, and other things Rhy could not place, from lands he'd never seen — Victoria Schwab

He manages a sad smile. An omission is not the same thing as a lie, Miss Bishop. It's a manipulation. — 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

. "You can't be here."

"Can't, shouldn't, wouldn't, won't," she whispered. "No one saw me go. No one thinks to look for someone who's always there. They are all looking for you."

"How did you find us?"

"You tick, I tock," she said, her voice so soft that only his ears could pick it up. "I would hear you anywhere." — Victoria Schwab

Even if surviving wasn't simple, or easy, or fair.
Even if he could never be human.
He wanted the chance to matter.
He wanted to live. — Victoria Schwab

You are crazy," he says. "You are a crazy, amazing girl. And you scare the hell out of me." I smile. — Victoria Schwab

The moment I met you, I knew you were different. — Victoria Schwab

She'd seen a documentary once, on cult leaders, and the traits that made them so effective. One of the most important features was a commanding presence. Too many people thought that meant being loud, but in truth, it meant someone who didn't need to be loud. Someone who could command an audience without ever raising their voice. — Victoria Schwab

He could be the monster if it kept others human. — 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

I left the window open, she says.
And just like that, the world pulls back into focus. I stop spinning and something in me cracks - not something literal like bones, thank god, but something just as deep - and I'm so ready for this damn night to end, but I don't want it to end here. — Victoria Schwab

August stared at her, aghast. "Did I know that kissing you would bring your soul to surface? That - THAT - would have the same effect as pain or music? No, I must have missed that lesson."

She stared at him, agape. "August, was that sarcasm? — Victoria Schwab

He dreamed of her hand tangling in his, a pulse of power twining them together. He dreamed of them racing through foreign streets, not the London ones they'd navigated, but crooks and bends in places he'd never been, and ones he might never see. But there she was, at his side, pulling him toward freedom. — Victoria Schwab

This whole thing," I say, slumping against the doorway, "it's a lot of change. I just needed some space. — Victoria Schwab

Victor was naturally quiet, but even more so under pressure, which gave his peers the distinct impression he knew what he was doing, even when he didn't. — Victoria Schwab

Serena was very good at telling tales. She had always been convincing (that was the word her sister liked to use for lying). — Victoria Schwab

Rhy felt Alucard's eyes wandering slowly, hungrily, over him, and he blushed. The heat started in his face and spread down, through his collar, his chest, beneath shirt and belt. It was disconcerting; Rhy might not have magic, but when it came to conquests, he was used to holding the power - things happened at his whim, and at his pleasure. Now he felt that power falter, slip. In all of Ames, there was only one person capable of flustering the prince, of reducing him from a proud royal to a nervous youth, and that was Alucard Emery. Misfit. Rogue. Privateer. And royal. — Victoria Schwab

Kate wondered who was more addicted to their high, serial killers or coffee addicts. — 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

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

I am broken the way most writers are, stories leaking through the cracks. — 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

He wasn't made of flesh and bone, or starlight.
He was made of darkness. — Victoria Schwab

Because caring was a thing with claws. It sank them in, and didn't let go. Caring hurt more than a knife to the leg, more than a few broken ribs, more than anything that bled or broke and healed again. Caring didn't break you clean. It was a bone that didn't set, a cut that wouldn't close.

It was better not to care--Lila tried not to care--but sometimes, people got in. — Victoria Schwab