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Clace Quote by Cassandra Clare

“Jace, you don’t have to—” “I was trying to go…somewhere,” Jace said. “But I kept getting pulled back here. I couldn’t stop walking, couldn’t stop thinking. About the first time I ever saw you, and how after that I couldn’t forget you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t stop myself. I forced Hodge to let…” quote by Cassandra Clare
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““Jace, you don’t have to—” “I was trying to go…somewhere,” Jace said. “But I kept getting pulled back here. I couldn’t stop walking, couldn’t stop thinking. About the first time I ever saw you, and how after that I couldn’t forget you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t stop myself. I forced Hodge to let me be the one who came to find you and bring you back to the Institute. And even back then, in that stupid coffee shop, when I saw you sitting on that couch with Simon, even then that felt wrong to me—I should have been the one sitting with you. The one who made you laugh like that. I couldn’t get rid of that feeling. That it should have been me. And the more I knew you, the more I felt it—it had never been like that for me before. I’d always wanted a girl and then gotten to know her and not wanted her anymore, but with you the feeling just got stronger and stronger until that night when you showed up at Renwick’s and I knew. “And then to find out that the reason I felt like that—like you were some part of me I’d lost and never even knew I was missing until I saw you again—that the reason was that you were my sister, it felt like some sort of cosmic joke. Like God was spitting on me. I don’t even know for what—for thinking that I could actually get to have you, that I would deserve something like that, to be that happy. I couldn’t imagine what it was I’d done that I was being punished for—” “If you’re being punished,” Clary said, “then so am I.””

Cassandra Clare

About This Quote

Source Novel: City of Bones, Cassandra Clare, 2007

Intense, forbidden love can feel like destiny, yet it may be rooted in painful revelations.

In simple terms: Love can be both fated and painful.

Key Takeaway

Recognize and process complex emotions.

Themes

love family identity destiny

Mood

conflicted melancholic

Type

dramatic emotional

When to use this quote

  • romantic relationships
  • family secrets
  • personal healing

Key Concepts

forbidden love self‑discovery psychological conflict

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do you differentiate genuine love from obsession?
  • What steps can you take to heal after discovering painful truths?
A Different Perspective

Obsession can cloud judgment and cause self‑harm.

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