Love doesn't let you walk away clean. Love is messy. Love takes a piece of you before it's done.

He smiled his best smile, the one that ruined me for every other smile in the world.

—R.K. Lilley in Bad Things

Lots of days, it just felt like the world had lost its color, and the only things that defined my life were the things I'd lost.

—R.K. Lilley in Lovely Trigger

I've found that often the quality you see in successful people is knowing when to take the initiative, and being quick about it. I've never sat around, waiting for someone to tell me to take charge. I just do it.

—R.K. Lilley in Bad Things

Some of the sweetest moments in life come from second chances.

—R.K. Lilley in Lovely Trigger

A love like that makes you better, even if you lose it all, even if it was for one precious moment in your life, you can't be sorry that you had it.

—R.K. Lilley in Mr. Beautiful

Any fool can love somebody who's perfect, somebody who does everything right. But that doesn't stretch your soul. Your soul only gets stretched when you can still love somebody after they've hurt you.

—Susan Elizabeth Phillips in Hot Shot

Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality, and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw.

—Fran Lebowitz

Sometimes you have to try to forget people you love just so you can keep living.

—Jacqueline Woodson in Between Madison and Palmetto

There is not love where there is no will.

—Indira Gandhi

Love in the real world means saying you're sorry 10 times a day.

—Kathie Lee Gifford