Milan Kundera: Quotes about love

“she loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane for the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.”

“Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.”

“In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body.”

“Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together.”

“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.”

“A single metaphor can give birth to love.”

“loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.”

“Physical love is unthinkable without violence.”

“"Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said.
"Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly.”

“Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”

“Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.”

“Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end."
Love is a battle?" said Franz. "Well, I don't feel at all like fighting." And he left.”

“He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made love in his life?) only two or three were really essential and unforgettable. The rest were mere echoes, imitations, repetitions, or reminiscences.”

“I have a strong will to love you for eternity.”

“The emotion of love gives all of us a misleading illusion of knowing the other.”

“The moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.”

“Once her love had been publicized, it would gain weight, become a burden.”

“Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.”

“Love is a continual interrogation. I don’t know of a better definition of love.”