The world is seldom so simple that it hinges on us alone.

Claude rubs the back of his neck and wrinkles his nose, about to tell me he was never sad. I believe this is called bravado and is not limited to lawyers, or even men, although that combination makes it almost unavoidable.

Did I become court composer through masterful procrastination? Hardly!

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

The world is seldom so simple that it hinges on us alone.

Heaven has fashioned a knife of irony to stab me with.

The twin gods, Necessity and Chance, walked among the stars. What needed to be, was; what might be, sometimes was.