“In every heart there should be one grief that is like a well in the desert.”

“The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and the same.
Before the onset of death, why should man expect to be free of grief?”

“Don't make it sound like that. Like some ordinary sort of grief. It's not like that. They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite. Over. This is a fresh wound every day.”

“The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

“You neglect and belittle the desert.
The desert is not remote in southern tropics
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

“All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”

“There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.”

“My ultimate dream is to sow seeds in the desert. To revegetate the deserts is to sow seed in people's hearts.”

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”

“What is a Shadowhunter made of, if they desert their own, if they throw away a child’s heart like rubbish left on the side of the road? Tell me, Simon Lewis, if that is what Shadowhunters are, why would I wish to be one?”