" If ever I have the time, I’m going to write a book about beauty and pain. They’re so alike in so many ways: neither of them really exist, but both of them are strong enough to override the strongest human mind and turn wisest and bravest of us all into clowns. Someone who can command beauty and pain – well, they’d have all the bases covered, as we say where I come from. "

― Tom Holt , In Your Dreams (J. W. Wells & Co., #2)