I love you, Tessa, and I have loved you, almost since the moment I met you.

It's your gift, to see the beauty and the horror in ordinary things. It doesn't make you crazy, just different.

I have a high pain threshold. In fact, it's more of a large and tastfully decorated foyer than a threshold. But I do get easily bored

No real lady would let a dress that might have been worn by a stranger touch her skin.

Who ever said the world was fair?

Words were weapons, his father had taught him that, and he'd wanted to hurt Clary more than he'd ever wanted to hurt any girl. In fact, he wasn't sure he had ever wanted to hurt a girl before. Usually he just wanted them, and then he wanted them to leave him alone.

To lose an arm or a leg would be painful, but to lose the central truth of your life felt—fatal.