“Maybe I didn't know her as well as I might have wanted. But I can tell you this: love mattered a great deal to Scarlet Montana. I think it must have mattered to Jake too. Because if love hadn't been important to them, they wouldn't have fallen to pieces when it suddenly abandoned them.”

“I’ll tell you what isn’t; why’d they only go for you? I mean me and Steve might as well have not even been there. They just wanted you.Well, can you blame them? I mean, everyone wants a piece of this sweet ass.”

“But that's not what you said when she walked into the room," said Simon quietly. "You said, 'Why didn't you ever tell me I had a brother?'""I know." Clary yanked a blade of grass out of the dirt, worrying it between her fingers. "I guess I can't help thinking that if I'd known the truth, I wouldn't have met Jace the way I did. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him."Simon was silent for a moment. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that before.""That I love him?" She laughed, but it sounded dreary even to her ears. "Seems useless to pretend like I don't, at this point. Maybe it doesn't matter. I probably won't ever see him again, anyway.""He'll come back.""Maybe.""He'll come back," Simon said again. "For you.”

“I have friends who have children, and they have told me how remarkable it is to have a new life that is a piece of your own flesh anf blood. But I --""I realized that I didn't love her because she was a piece of me, I loved her because she was a piece of you.”

“I have won important things for myself, but I'm going to destroy them, because I tell myself they have lost their meaning. I know that is not true. I know they are important, and that if I destroy them, I'll be destroying myself, as well.”

“I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.”