“If you never tell anyone the truth about yourself, eventually you start to forget. The love, the heartbreak, the joy, the despair, the things I did that were good, the things I did that were shameful--if I kept them all inside, my memories of them would start to disappear. And then I would disappear.”

Cassandra Clare is an American author of young adult fantasy. She gained prominence for her *Mortal Instruments* series, blending urban fantasy and gothic romance, and later expanded her world with the *Shadowhunters* novels. Her work explores themes of identity, destiny, and hidden supernatural communities.