"Dog tired, I put my head down and said, "Please God, send me a line." Then she sat up and wrote, "A Diamond is Forever." p 348

"Gabi Tolkowsky is one of the world's greatest diamond cutters...He takes some of the biggest and most valuable stones in the world, walks their landscapes, maps their contours, notices their hazards, and then, when he knows them better, perhaps, than one might know a lover, he dares to invent a new shape for them.... "Whenever I see a diamond I ask it, 'What do you want to become?' And it says, 'I want to be the most beautiful," he said.
That was the question he asked before he fashioned the Golden Jubilee in 1997, which, at 545.67 carats, eclipsed the Cullinan as the largest-faceted diamond in the world. And when he had listened to the answer, it became a cushion-shaped diamond, which refracts light into gold and looks like flowers and warmth and sparkle. Before that it was simply known as the "Unknown Brown." He asked the same question of the Centenary, at 599 carats one of the largest colorless rough diamonds ever found. IT TOOK HIM THREE YEARS TO HEAR ITS ANSWER, MOST OF WHICH HE AND HIS FAMILY SPENT AS GUESTS OF DE BEERS, WHOSE CENTENARY THE STONE WAS TO CELEBRATE." p. 354

From Jewels by Victoria Finlay