Empire of the Vampire Quotes

“A life without books is a life not lived.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“There’s no misery so deep as one you face by yourself. No nights darker than ones you spend alone. But you can learn to live with any weight. Your scars grow thick enough, they become armour.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“You’re past is stone, but your future clay. And you decide the shape of the life you’ll make.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“When there’s little you can do, do what little you can.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“It's in silence we know ourselves, vampire. It's in stillness we hear the questions that truly matter, scratching like baby birds on the eggshells of our eyes. Who am I? What do I want? What have I become? Truth is, the questions you hear in the quiet are always the most terrifying, because most people never take the time to listen to the answers. They dance. And they sing. And they fight. And they fuck. And they drown, filling their gullets with piss and their lungs with smoke and their heads with shit so they never have to learn the truth of who the fuck they are. Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Ask me not if God exists, but why he's such a prick.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Aim your heart at the fucking world.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“If we spend all our lives in darkness, is it any wonder when darkness starts to live in us?”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Astrid was just as fierce a scholar as I was a swordsman. A girl who wielded books like blades.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“De León. Ye live."
'"Sadly."
'"How?" he hissed.
'"God didn't want me. And the devil was afraid to open the door.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“You're sailing awfully close to the shores of a little island most call None of Your Fucking Business.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Hearts only bruise. They never break.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“My friends are the hill I die on.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“No sin so dangerous as the sin that is chosen.

No sin so glorious as the sin that is shared.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“Too much hate will burn a man to cinders, Chevalier.
Oui. But at least he'll die warm”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“My mama knew herself, and there’s a fearsome power in that. Knowing exactly who you are and exactly what you’re capable of. Most folks would call it arrogance, I suppose. But most folks are fucking fools.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“What a world this would be, were it not held wholly and solely in the grip of stubborn old men.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“See, I never understood that. Why pride is looked on as an evil. You work hard at something you're not born good at? Damn right you should be fucking proud.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“The book was near falling to pieces, but the lettering was still visible, faint and faded, oui, but still there. This, too, was a strange immortality. Poems, stories, ideas, frozen forever in time. The simple wonder of books.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“It is my empress's will to know the whole of your tale.'
Gabriel reached into his battered britches, fished about under the monster's stare. Finally, he retrieved a tarnished royale from his pocket. 'Here.'
'What is that for?' Jean-François demanded.
'I want you to take this coin to market, and buy me a fuck to give.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“I will not give my heart to a coward. I will give it to a lion.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“What kind of hero are you?'
Gabriel laughed, shaking his head.
'Who the fuck told you I was a hero?”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“But music, de León…” The vampire leaned forward, animated for perhaps the first time since their conversation began. “Music is a truth beyond telling. A bridge between strangest souls. Two men who speak not a word of each other’s tongues may yet feel their hearts soar likewise at the same refrain. Gift a man the most important of lessons, he may forget it amorrow. Gift him a beautiful song, and he shall hum it ’til the day the crows make a castle of his bones.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“In death and truth I see, through blood and fire, now dance with me.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“But you're not a weak and foolish girl.
No. I'm a fucking queen.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“I've stood in the houses of the holy, priest. I've read his scripture cover to cover, I've sung praises to his name, and I tell you now and tell you true: One hand holding a sword is worth ten thousand clasped in prayer.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“It matters not what you hold faith in. But you must hold faith in something.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“A smile curled Jean-François’s lips. “I had heard you were a man of ill temper.” “Interesting. I hadn’t heard of you at all.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire

“When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire