Sometimes the contortions required to spit on Occam’s razor were just as disturbing as the insights one yearned to avoid. - Ian Tregillis

How have you acquired such intimate knowledge of our kind's innermost construction?"\n"You know exactly how. You need me because I'm not burdened with a system of mores that hobbles my inquiries. So you can drop the indignation and make yourselves useful.

Have you any idea how long and painful my convalescence was?"\nBerenice shrugged. "Have you any idea how little I care?

“Sergeant,” she said as they mounted the stairs leading to her old apartments, “thank you for treating me like a human being. And, for what it’s worth, I am sorry about how this turned out.”
He grunted. “It can’t be undone,” was all he said.