He barely knew I existed. I knew some of the same people he knew, but I was a girl in the background, several degrees of seperation removed.

It's hard to plan for what comes next when what comes next is not something you planned for.

There's a hero in every heart waiting for the dragon to come out.

Even the most sensitive person can get used to even the most insensitive thing. Cruelty isn’t a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.

The harder survival becomes, the more you want to pull together. And the more you want to pull together, the harder survival becomes.

The beautiful wooden board on a stand in my father's study. The gleaming ivory pieces. The stern king. The haughty queen. The noble knight. The pious bishop. And the game itself, the way each piece contributed its individual power to the whole. It was simple. It was complex. It was savage; it was elegant. It was a dance; it was a war. It was finite and eternal. It was life.

A miscalculation is not negligence, nor prudence a crime. I am a scientist. I base my action or inaction upon probability and evidence. There is a reason we call science a discipline! Inferior minds bolt or build pyres to roast the witches in their midst!