Second Foundation (Foundation, #3)

by Isaac Asimov

We allowed only for a megalomania—not for an intensely psychopathic paranoia as well.

and then thought darkly that some day when she was a great writer, she would write all her masterpieces under the pseudonym of Arkady. Just Arkady. No last name at all.

If I have a secret, I don’t put tape over my mouth and let everyone know I have a secret. I talk just as much as usual, only about something else.

“Fourteen? Great Galaxy— Tell me, has she ever said she expects to marry someday?” “No, she hasn’t. Not to me.” “Well, if she ever does, shoot him. The one she’s going to marry, I mean.” He stared earnestly into the older man’s eyes. “I’m serious. Life could hold no greater horror than living with what she’ll be like when she’s twenty. I don’t mean to offend you, of course.” “You don’t offend me. I think I know what you mean.”

But the house was somehow very lonely at night and Dr. Darell found that the fate of the Galaxy made remarkably little difference while his daughter’s mad little life was in danger.