When one steals a flying balloon and animates it to fly over Paris, one should, ideally, have some idea how said balloon normally works.
Vampires, fey folk, werewolves, Shadowhunters, and demons - these things made sense to Magnus. But the mundane world - it seemed to have no pattern, no form. Their quicksilver politics. Their short lives...
We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.
Here we attempt to answer those questions that arise most frequently. YES, THAT IS WHAT 'FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS' MEANS, THANK YOU.
It is difficult to put words to the smell of decomposing human. It is dense and cloying, sweet but not flower-sweet. Halfway between rotting fruit and rotting meat.
Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead, they will say. Ah, but there is.
Then she had been a fiancee, a young wife, and a mother, and she had discovered that these words were far too small ever to contain the experience.
He'd kept this silence because his own secrets were darker, more hidden, and because he believed that his secrets had created hers.
You can't stop time. You can't capture light. You can only turn your face up and let it rain down.
Each letter has a shape, she told them, one shape in the world and no other, and it is your responsibility to make it perfect.
The female form provides the solution in which the essence itself is held; she is , and acted upon, the male is , the mover.
If variety is the spice of life, then my life must be one of the spiciest you ever heard of. A curry of a life. -Paul Child
In Egypt, like everywhere, the land is made to fit the sky; but here it is more so. Here it is possible to say, “This is land," and point, and “This is sky," and point, but the eyes can’t discover the dividing line.
Do stop flirting with my husband," said Tessa. "I shall not," Magnus declared, "but I will pause briefly so that I may catch up on your news.
She seemed like a creature made to attract everyone and express nothing real, though it would take a master observer, like Magnus, to know it.
It was, of course, odd for a lady to be opening her own door, but from the look of the place, Magnus assumed the entire staff of servants had been given the decade off.
The conviction that everyone in this house must be dead had gained such a hold on Magnus that it was a shock when the woman who had summoned him here opened the door.
I've come to the conclusion that liking a person we are required to have dealings with is not of paramount importance. But respect is crucial, on both sides, as is tolerance, and a depth of understanding of those influences that sculpt a character.
... the Iroquois take dreams very seriously. They see them as the secret wishes of the soul--the heart's desire, so to speak. Not all dreams, maybe, but the important ones. [p.254]
Remember, children, all the stories are true." Simon tried to wrap his head around the idea that there might, somewhere in Germany, be a large bean stalk with an angry giant at the top.
Simon was still hoping that somewhere in the Sadowhunter manual was the secret of the Vulcan death grip. After all, as his instructors kept reminding them: All the stories are true.
