“You know, my dear, you’re wrong that suffering ennobles people.” She’d stopped to massage her hip, wincing… — Gregory Benford

I would have to look, try to find a bridge that would make plausible what I knew but could scarcely prove. The standards of science are austere, unforgiving—and who would have it differently? I would have to hedge, to take one step back for each two forward, to compare and suggest and contrast, always sticking close to the data. And despite what I thought I knew now, the data would have to lead, they would have to show the way.

But the answers come when they will, one piece at a time.

Talkers never acted when they could talk.