Christopher Lightwood Quotes

“Please recall that I am the pale neurasthenic one and you are the stern heroic one,” Matthew said to James. “It is very tedious when you mix up our roles.”
“So what is my role?” said Christopher.
“Mad inventor, of course,” said Matthew promptly. “And Thomas is the one with a good heart.”
“Lord, I sound dull,” said Thomas.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“Thomas was frowning. “My aunt Tatiana is mad. My father has often said so, that his sister was driven to madness by what happened to her father and her husband. She blames our parents for their deaths.”
“But James has never done anything to her,” said Christopher, his eyebrows knitting together.
“He’s a Herondale,” said Thomas. “That’s enough.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Christopher said. “It is as if one was bitten by a duck and years later one shot a completely different duck and ate it for dinner, and called that revenge.”
“Please do not use metaphors, Christopher,” said Matthew. “It gives me the pip.”
“This is bad enough without mentioning ducks,” said James. He had never fancied ducks since one had bitten him in Hyde Park as a small child.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“You look ill,” Matthew observed. “Is it my dancing? Is it me personally?”
“Perhaps I’m nervous,” she said. “Lucie did say you didn’t like many people.”
Matthew gave a sharp, startled laugh, before schooling his face back into a look of lazy amusement. “Did she? Lucie’s a chatterbox.”
“But not a liar,” she said.
“Well, fear not. I do not dislike you. I hardly know you,” said Matthew. “I do know your brother. He made my life miserable at school, and Christopher’s, and James’s.”
“Alastair and I are very different,” Cordelia said. She didn’t want to say more than that. It felt disloyal to Alastair. “I like Oscar Wilde, for instance, and he does not.”
The corner of Matthew’s mouth curled up. “I see you go directly for the soft underbelly, Cordelia Carstairs. Have you really read Oscar’s work?”
“Just Dorian Gray,” Cordelia confessed. “It gave me nightmares.”
“I should like to have a portrait in the attic,” Matthew mused, “that would show all my sins, while I stayed young and beautiful. And not only for sinning purposes—imagine being able to try out new fashions on it. I could paint the portrait’s hair blue and see how it looks.”
“You don’t need a portrait. You are young and beautiful,” Cordelia pointed out.
“Men are not beautiful. Men are handsome,” objected Matthew.
“Thomas is handsome. You are beautiful,” said Cordelia, feeling the imp of the perverse stealing over her. Matthew was looking stubborn. “James is beautiful too,” she added.
“He was a very unprepossessing child,” said Matthew. “Scowly, and he hadn’t grown into his nose.”
“He’s grown into everything now,” Cordelia said.
Matthew laughed, again as if he was surprised to be doing it. “That was a very shocking observation, Cordelia Carstairs. I am shocked.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“I appreciate the scientific rigor with which you’ve approached this project, Anna,” said Christopher, who had gotten jam on his sleeve. “Though I don’t think I could manage to collect that many names and also pursue science. Much too time-consuming.”
Anna laughed. “How many names would you want to collect, then?”
Christopher tilted his head, a brief frown of concentration crossing his face, and did not reply.
“I would only want one,” said Thomas.
Cordelia thought of the delicate tracery of the compass rose on Thomas’s arm, and wondered if he had any special person in mind.
“Too late for me to only have one,” declared Matthew airily. “At least I can hope for several names in a carefully but enthusiastically selected list.”
“Nobody’s ever tried to seduce me at all,” Lucie announced in a brooding fashion. “There’s no need to look at me like that, James. I wouldn’t say yes, but I could immortalize the experience in my novel.”
“It would be a very short novel, before we got hold of the blackguard and killed him,” said James.
There was a chorus of laughter and argument. The afternoon sun was sinking in the sky, its rays catching the jeweled hilts of the knives in Anna’s mantelpiece. They cast shimmering rainbow patterns on the gold-and-green walls. The light illuminated Anna’s shabby-bright flat, making something in Cordelia’s heart ache. It was such a homey place, in a way that her big cold house in Kensington was not.
“What about you, Cordelia?” said Lucie.
“One,” said Cordelia. “That’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it, really? Instead of many who give you little pieces of themselves—one who gives you everything.”
Anna laughed. “Searching for the one is what leads to all the misery in this world,” she said. “Searching for many is what leads to all the fun.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“Demons do like to take up residence in ruins, especially those where there are remnants of black magic,” said Christopher. “And we all know what Grandfather Benedict was up to in that house. It’s why he turned into a worm.”
“Ah,” said Matthew, “fond family memories.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“If you were a truly dedicated brother Thomas, you would be at Babara's side,” Anna said. “I would hope that if I collapsed, Christopher would weep inconsolably and be incapable of consuming meat pies.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“Matthew had not meant for Christopher to be asked to leave shadowhunter Academy, but as it emerged, they did not let you remain in school if you blew up any portion of it.”
― Cassandra Clare, Cast Long Shadows

“By the name of Lilith," he drawled. "Hide the breakables. Hide the whole house. Christopher Lightwood is here.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“There is so much wrong with the world," said Christopher. "I want it to make sense. I want to put it right. I want to find the solutions that are overlooked by others.”
― Cassandra Clare, Days Past: Lucie and Cordelia

“Cordelia clamped her lips together tightly, as if she were struggling not to cry. Christopher looked terribly alarmed. "Oh, what ho, tears," he said helplessly. "Ghastly- not that you shouldn't cry if you wish, of course. Cry like the blazes, Cordelia."
"Christopher," said James darkly. "You are not helping.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Iron

“Christopher, apart from providing the reassurance of an authoritative male presence - ”
“What ho!” put in Christopher, looking pleased.
“ - is my little brother and must do what I say,” Anna finished.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Thorns

“Did you sleep in those clothes, Christopher? I know Aunt Cecily, Uncle Gabriel, and Cousin Anna would never let you inflict these horrors on the populace. What are those peculiar lavender stains upon your shirtfront? Did you set your sleeves on fire?”

Christopher regarded his sleeves as if he had never beheld them before. “A bit,” he said guiltily.

“Ah well,” said Matthew. “At least the purple stains match your eyes.”
― Cassandra Clare, Cast Long Shadows

“Several of us are wounded," said Christopher. "Unless we want to explain what happened here, and it seems that would be a bad idea, we should probably apply iratzes." He turned to Thomas. "I will do yours."
"Please don't," said Thomas. Christopher did not always have the best of luck with runes.
"Oh bloody hell, I'll do it," said Alastair, and stomped heavily over to Thomas's side. Thomas watched in what seemed to be shock as Alastair produced a stele and began to draw on the bare skin of his arm where his shirt had been torn.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“Arrested by a sudden thought. "Christopher, do you have a map of London?"
"I am a scientist," said Christopher, not a geographer! I don't have a map of London. I do have a beaker of Raum venom," he added, "but it's in my shoe, and will be difficult to reach."
"Does anyone have questions about that?" James said, glancing around. "No? Good. All right, a map-”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Iron

“Do you think Tatiana knows?” Thomas asked. “About Cordelia being a paladin?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t told her,” said James. “She is not his confidante, his partner. Belial doesn’t have those. He has dupes and minions—”
“Oh dear,” said Christopher. “I’m sorry, Jesse. Perhaps this is awkward for you.”
Jesse waved this off. “Not at all.”
“You could wait in the stairwell,” Christopher suggested magnanimously, “while we talk about how to defeat your mother and crush her plans. If you like.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Thorns