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Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Tehran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and which later inspired her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel. Sword Catcher is her most recent novel.


“I'm boasting of my...skills, and I would prefer to do it without interruption.”
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“Tact is just lying for adults.”
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“If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't”
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“One of the Silent Brothers is here to see you. Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually he offered to wake you himself, but since it's 5 a.m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at.""Meaning you?""What else?”
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“It wouldn't be my move," Jace agreed. "First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order.”
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“Is standing by the window muttering about blood something he does all the time?" asked Simon."No," Jace said. "Sometimes he sits on the couch and does it.”
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“You're so easy to tease. And yes, your friend is just fine. Well, except that he keeps putting all my things away and trying to clean up. Now I can't find anything. He's compulsive.”
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“We came to see Jace. Is he alright?""I don't know," Magnus said. "Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?”
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“How awfully convenient for you, regardless. And for him. He won't have to worry about you spilling his secrets.""Yeah," Jace said. "He's terrified I'll tell everyone that he's always wanted to be a ballerina.”
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“You see, cuckoos are parasites. They lay their eggs in other birds' nests. When the egg hatches, the baby cuckoo pushes the other baby birds out of the nest. The poor parent birds work themselves to death trying to find enough food to feed the enormous cuckoo child who has murdered their babies and taken their places.""Enormous?" said Jace. "Did you just call me fat?""It was an analogy.""I am not fat.”
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“Isabella with her whip and boots and knives would chop anyone who tried to pen her up in a tower into pieces, build a bridge out of the remains, and walk carelessly to freedom, her hair looking fabulous the entire time.”
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“My rapier wit hides my inner pain.”
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“That does it," said Jace. "I'm going to get you a dictionary for Christmas this year.""Why?" Isabelle said."So you can look up 'fun.' I'm not sure you know what it means.”
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“Declarations of love amuse me. Especially when unrequited.”
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“I'll just have them change the entry in the demonology textbook from 'almost extinct' to 'not extinct enough for Alec. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.' Will that make you happy?”
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“He had electric blue hair that had stuck around his head like tendrils of a startled octopus.”
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“At the time I thought what I had with you and your mother was better than nothing. But if you can't tell the truth to the people you care about the most, eventually you stop being able to tell the truth to yourself.”
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“You had every right to be. He raised his eyes to look at her and she was suddenly and strangely reminded of being four years old at the beach, crying when the wind came up and blew away the castle she had made. Her mother had told her she could make another one if she liked, but it hadn't stopped her crying because what she had thought was permanent was not permanent after all, but only made out of sand that vanished at the touch of wind and water.”
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“Catching sight of himself in the long mirrors that ran along the walls, he stiffened in shock...His eyes were surrounded by black shadows, his shirt smeared with dried blood and filthy mud..."Admiring yourself?" The Inquisitor's voice cut through his reverie. "You won't look so pretty when the Clave gets through with you.""You do seem obsessed with my look...Could it be that you're attracted to me?""Don't be revolting...You could be my son.”
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“You might want to lie down," Magnus advised. "I find that it helps when the crushing sense of horrible realization sets in.”
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“Is there some particular reason that you're here?" ..."Not this again.""Not what again?" said Clary."Every time I annoy him, he retreats into his No Mundanes Allowed tree house." Simon pointed at Jace.”
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“I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead.""Well," said Luke, "you're doing a fantastic job.”
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“He'd felt like a jack-o-lantern for the past few days, as if his guts had been yanked out with a fork and dumped in a heap while a grinning smile stayed plastered on his face.”
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“Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."..."At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland.""Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.”
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“I am a badass, and I recognize that you, too, are a badass.”
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“Don't touch any of my weapons without my permission.""Well, there goes my plan for selling them all on eBay," Clary muttered."Selling them on what?"Clary smiled blandly at him. "A mythical place of great magical power.”
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“Can I help you with something?"Clary turned instant traitor against her gender. "Those girls on the other side of the car are staring at you."Jace assumed an air of mellow gratification. "Of course they are," he said, "I am stunningly attractive.”
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“Don't sulk. For someone with all the grace and coordination of a pregnant wildebeest, you did great.”
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“asdfa”
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