Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade

There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter for the prolonging of desire

I can see patterns in events, and behaviors; in mathematics, I follow slower

There is no folly like the folly of the wise.

This is the secret that none dares tell who fights for a cause. Dying, we are all alike.

I know what you are. I've always known from the beginning, Kushiel's Chosen. It is folly, to make claim on one whom the gods have marked for their own. And unlike the others, I am no fool, to grasp at that which burns to the touch. What you have given..." she raised one hand, palm upward, the garnet seal dangling at her wrist, "... I hold in an open hand.

It's funny, because in deference to conventional wisdom, I spent my struggling writer years trying to suppress my naturally baroque literary voice and write clean, spare prose. I finally gave up and embraced my baroque tendencies when I wrote the Kushiel series.