Cassandra Clare

You're a reader as well as a writer, so write what you'd want to read. ”

You know that I had heard so many times people say things like, 'You could never write 'Harry Potter' and have it be about Harriett Potter because nobody would read it; people only want to read an adventure story if it's about a boy,' and I thought, 'I don't think that's true.' ”

I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters. ”

My father is a big believer in nature over nurture. ”

As long as they're making beloved books into movies, people are going to be like, 'That's not my mental image of them.' It takes that moment for it to click and become their mental image. ”

I am in the U.K. for inspiration because I'm doing a follow on series to 'The Infernal Devices,' called 'The Last Hours.' It's a re-telling of 'Great Expectations' with 'Shadowhunters'... because why not! It's set in 1903, so I'm doing a lot of locational research. ”

I get a lot of inspiration from research in mythology and folklore. I find that, you know, stories people told each other thousands of years ago are still relevant now. ”

I believe that writer's block is a symptom. It's not a disease, it's the symptom of a disease. So what I try to do is kind of do it like 'House'; write down the symptom and write down the other symptoms. Try to work backwards to figure out what the problem is. ”

I work on a word count basis, so I have to write three thousand words a day. I can write them in the morning, I can write them in the evening; as long as they get done. ”

In my own work, I don't have favorite characters, but I have characters that I relate to the most. And I relate the most to Simon from 'The Mortal Instruments,' and also Tessa from 'The Infernal Devices.' They're more sort of bookish and shy characters. ”