" I wouldn’t like to meet her again,” Jeff said, “and not in a dark alley.” He’d need to be tougher than he ever could be, and it wasn’t just this one old lady, it was most people in the world. Jeff felt as if he’d been keeping a secret from himself and had come around a dark inner corner to rediscover it. He felt shaky, but as if he’d learned something. Probably it was good for him. He thought it was. It wasn’t good for him to get confident; just like he’d been confident about Melody. It was when you got confident you got taken by surprise and really banged around. "

― Cynthia Voigt , A Solitary Blue (Tillerman Cycle, #3)