"There is such a legend about a bird that sings only once in its entire life, but more beautifully than anything else in the world. One day it leaves its nest and flies off in search of a thorn bush, never resting until it finds one. Among the prickly branches, it begins to sing and throws itself breast-first onto the longest, sharpest thorn. And, rising amid indescribable agony, it sings as it dies—a song so exultant that even the lark and the nightingale would envy it. The one incomparable song, and it is obtained at the price of life. But the whole world falls silent, listening, and God Himself smiles in the heavens. For everything best is bought only at the price of great suffering... At least, so the legend says." Colleen McCullough, "The Thorn Birds"