“No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater…The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that’s the key. It’s like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship…”— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”— Anaïs Nin, amazon.com
“For many, love is a two-sided coin. It can strengthen or stifle, expand or enfeeble, perfect or pauperize. When love is returned, we soar. We are taken to heights unseen, where it delights, invigorates, and beautifies. When love is spurned, we feel crippled, disconsolate, and bereaved. Polish the co…”— Colleen Houck, goodreads.com
“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important p…”— Elizabeth Gilbert, amazon.com
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”— Friedrich Nietzsche, goodreads.com
“Most men claim to desire driven, independent and confident women. Yet when confronted with such a creature reverence often evolves into resent. For just like women, men need to be needed.”— Tiffany Madison, goodreads.com
“That’s when I finally got it. I finally understood. It wasn’t the thought that counted. It was the actual execution that mattered, the showing up for somebody. The intent behind it wasn’t enough. Not for me. Not anymore. It wasn’t enough to know that deep down, he loved me. You had to actually say i…”— Jenny Han, amazon.com
“But Guzim’s was the face we saw every day, the man who said good morning and good night to my girl, who smiled and cooed and remarked on her growth, her smile and her first words.”— Julie Margaret Hogben, nytimes.com
“Happy families are not all alike. Some are fractured and misshapen. To appreciate them, you have to adjust your line of sight, your level of expectation.”— Lara Bazelon, nytimes.com
“There was love, an abundance of it; we just had to respect and accept that it was not the love of happily ever after.”— Lara Bazelon, nytimes.com
“I felt the acute pain of losing someone I loved and the relief of being able to retreat further inside myself without his feathery fingers of adoration checking in.”— Caroline Hurwitz, nytimes.com
“We were sick of each other but we also loved each other. He slept in my bed, where my stack of books on the bedside table cast a skyline shadow across his face.”— Caroline Hurwitz, nytimes.com
“Now I know what I want: a relationship that will fill me with dopamine and steady my heartbeat when he entwines his fingers with mine.”— Melissa Hill, nytimes.com
“Unfortunately, years of schooling can’t teach you about recovering from heartbreak the way experience can.”— Melissa Hill, nytimes.com
“Absence was in the air, but presence too. My security guard lingered nearby.”— Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, nytimes.com
“Twenty years and two children later, I am still with that same man. I don’t need him, but I want him in my life.”— Karen Rinaldi, nytimes.com
“Finally, surrender became not just inevitable but exhilarating. I didn’t want to hold on to anything anymore. I wanted to fall, and I already had. And I knew that this time, too, I would be O.K.”— Natalie Lindeman, nytimes.com
“Maybe it was the way he said, ‘I’d rather spend my summer with you than any other girl.’ Maybe it was how being around him made me forget the brace and the wounds, made me feel whole and unbroken.”— Natalie Lindeman, nytimes.com
“Most people I know have a Jeremy in their lives, someone whose consequence a label can’t capture.”— Jordana Narin, nytimes.com
“But by not calling someone, say, ‘my boyfriend,’ he actually becomes something else, something indefinable. And what we have together becomes intangible. And if it’s intangible it can never end because officially there’s nothing to end. And if it never ends, there’s no real closure, no opportunity t…”— Jordana Narin, nytimes.com