But for splicing of accidents they would never have met at all: and yet, given the brand and gut them, it came to seem impossible that their lives could have been lived on any terms other than those to be set in motion in each other. A million taunting reasons never to meet each other. Trajectories in different quarters of the universe. The worlds of their deeper pasts so far apart.

- Remember Me (Chapter One) by Melvyn Bragg