I’m from New Jersey. I was born in toxic sludge.

Will: "You are not really dying, are you?" Jem: "So they tell me." Will: "I am sorry." Jem: "No. Don’t be ordinary like that. Don’t say you’re sorry. Say you’ll train with me." Will: "I’ll train with you.

In all Gabriel’s life he could not remember his brother giving even the prettiest of Shadowhunter girls a second glance. Yet he looked at this scarred mundane servant as if she were the sun rising. It was inexplicable, but it was also undeniable. He could see the horror on his brother’s face as Sophie’s good opinion of him shattered before his eyes.

Write what you want to read. So many people think they need to write a particular kind of book, or imitate a successful style, in order to be published. I've known people who felt they had to model their book on existing blockbusters, or write in a genre that's supposed to be "hot right now" in order to get agents and publishers interested. But if you're writing in a genre you don't like, or modeling yourself on a book you don't respect, it'll show through. You're your first, most important reader, so write the book that reader really wants to read.

You know, when most girls say they want a big rock, they don't mean, you know, literally a big rock. -Clary Fray to Jace Wayland

When somebody tells you there's something wrong with your book they're almost always right, when they tell you how to fix it they're almost always wrong.

Life is full of risks. Death is much simpler.