Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things. - Diana Wynne Jones

If nothing happened, then there's nothing to remember, she told herself, trying to sound philosophical. Of course there's nowhere to start.

I have been with the Court all my life, travelling with the King's Progress. I didn't know how to go on. I sat and stared at this sentence, until Grundo said, "If you can't do it, I will." If you didn't know Grundo, you'd think this was a generous offer, but it was a threat really. Grundo is dyslexic. Unless he thinks hard, he writes inside out and backwards. He was threatening me with half a page of crooked writing with words like "inside" turning up as "sindie" and "story" as "otsyr".

One does not want glory accepted as a matter of course. One wants to shock and astonish people with it.