Did I become court composer through masterful procrastination? Hardly!

For future reference: do not underestimate the seductive power of math.

My own survival required me to counterbalance interesting with invisible.

I had felt the shot coming; I hadn't realized the bow was loaded with this very quarrel, perfectly calibrated to hit him hardest. What part of me had been studying him, stockpiling knowledge as ammunition?

Metaphor is awkward, but emotion, by its nature, leaves you no more scalable approach.

I barely noticed loneliness anymore; it was my normal condition, by necessity if not by nature.

I was drawn to his aloofness, the way cats gravitate toward people who’d rather avoid them.