“I saw the little creases in the flesh of her neck, just the tiniest little creases, the little mark left day after day by that absolutely ininitesimal gossamer cord of thuggee which time throws around the prettiest neck every day to garrote it. The cord is so gossamer that it breaks every day, but the marks get there finally, and finally one day the gossamer cord doesn’t break and is enough. I looked at the marks when Anne lifted her chin, and realized that I had never noticed them before and would always notice them again.”
Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men