Art and Culture Quotes in City of Bones

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

The floor was littered with discarded balls of paper, a sure sign that her creative juices weren't flowing the way she'd hoped. (2.2)

Little wads of paper: evidence of creative constipation. Clary needs more inspirational fiber.

Quote #2

"I've got a bunch of meetings with my art group, and ten more classes at Tisch." (2.68)

One of Clary's short-term goals is to attend summer classes at the prestigious Tisch School of Art. Guess what? You can, too.

Quote #3

Chiaroscuro, [Clary] thought. The art of shadows and light. (11.165)

Clary's art education enables her to make nifty arty metaphors about Jace and his inner conflict between light and dark.

Quote #4

There was a queasy sense of something organic about the bikes, like the bio-creatures in a Giger painting. (12.20)

So they look like the alien from Alien with wheels. We do not want to know what the exhaust pipe is sticking out of.

Quote #5

The sight was as surreal as one of the abstract Magritte paintings Jocelyn had loved. This one, Clary thought, would be called The Stairs to Nowhere. (14.128)

Actually, we think a better name would be This is Not a Staircase,in honor of Magritte's famous work This is Not a Pipe.

Quote #6

[Jace] looked like a fair-haired angel from a Rembrandt painting. (17.8)

This is meant to be compliment, and something that Clary, an art student, would think, but it sure doesn't sound very masculine or heroic. Sorry, Gabriel.

Quote #7

[Clary] cradled [her sketchbook] to her chest, not wanting to draw in it, just craving the feel and smell of familiar things: ink, paper, chalk. (17.136)

Art is as much about physical sensations as it is about mental ones. And for Clary, art's kind of like home.

Quote #8

If a rune could bring a painting to life, then maybe— (17.143)

If it doesn't work, then Clary has just succeeded at defacing a painting, which she will probably feel pretty rotten about later.

Quote #9

"My mother painted the Mortal Cup into Madame Dorothea's tarot deck." (18.38)

The Ace of Cups can represent love and creativity, and repressed emotions. Or it can be a magical artifact that might hold the very fate of mankind. Who knew Tarot could be so serious?

Quote #10

As it usually did, thinking of how she would draw it helped. (22.139)

Art therapy, anyone? Clary's eye for art assists her special Sight in seeing what really exists.