...which fairy-tale princess ever chose her maid over her prince?

I love the structural part of the writing process.

He had the vague sense of standing on a threshold, the crossing of which would change everything.

. . . companions were to be valued, wherever one found them.

But history is a faithless teller whose cruel recourse to hindsight makes fools of its actors.

In real life turning points are sneaky. They pass by unlabeled and unheeded. Opportunities are missed, catastrophes unwittingly celebrated. Turning points are only uncovered later, by historians who seek to bring order to a lifetime of tangled moments.

Thinking of nothing. Trying to think of nothing. Thinking of everything.