Do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don't think so. That's what makes the betrayal hurt so much—pain, frustration, anger… and I still loved her. I still do.
—Brandon Sanderson in The Way of Kings
Loving someone was traumatizing. You never knew what would happen to them out there in the world. Everything precious was also vulnerable.
—Mary H.K. Choi in Emergency Contact
When there is no desire to satisfy yourself, there is no aggression or speed… Because there is no rush to achieve, you can afford to relax. Because you can afford to relax, you can afford to keep company with yourself, you can afford to make love with yourself, to be friends with yourself.
—Carlos Castaneda in The Teachings of Don Juan
I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.
—Angie Thomas in The Hate U Give
Loving our parents, we bring them into us. They inhabit us. For a long time I believed that I could not bear to live without Mom and Dad—I could not bear to "outlive" them—for to be a daughter without parents did not seem possible to me.
—Joyce Carol Oates in A Widow's Story
One day all of this will be proof, proof that we were here, proof that we loved each other. It's the guarantee that no matter what happens to us in the future, this time was ours.
—Jenny Han in Lara Jean
I can't do this, I can't just be a wife. I don't understand how anyone does it—there is literally nothing to do but wait. Wait for a man to come home and love you.
—Paula Hawkins in The Girl on the Train
Sometimes love does not have the most honorable beginnings, and the endings, the endings will break you in half. It's everything in between we live for.
—Ann Patchett in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
When you're in love, every day is like a present you get to open.
—Elin Hilderbrand in Winter Storms
If you haven't already, you will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and you never completely get over the loss of a deeply beloved person. But this is also good news. The person lives forever, in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through, and you learn to dance with the banged-up heart.
—Anne Lamott in Plan B
I didn't know love felt like this, like turning into brightness.
—Jandy Nelson in The Sky Is Everywhere
Love isn't found in words. It's found in quiet moments, a look, a sigh, a smile, a gladness. And very often, it's shown with sacrifice.
—Lorraine Heath in Just Wicked Enough
There is an emptiness inside of me—a void that will never be filled. No one in your life will ever love you as your mother does. There is no love as pure, unconditional and strong as a mother's love. And I will never be loved that way again.
—Hope Edelman in Motherless Daughters
This was the kind of kiss you remembered when you were a very old lady with a very poor memory.
—Valerie Bowman in The Untamed Earl
What's important is people. The people who love us, who need us, who make us feel emotion. That's what's important in life.
—Helen Hardt in Possession