“To whom could I put this question (with any hope of an answer)? Does being able to live without someone you loved mean you loved her less than you thought…?”

“I want to talk about love. Loving someone…I mean really loving someone…means you are willing to admit that the person you love is not what you first fell in love with, not the image you first had; and you must be able to like them still for being as close to that image as they are, and avoid disliking them for being so far away.”

Samuel R. Delany (1942) American author, professor and literary critic

“But, when the chips are down, its better to be furious with someone you love, or frightened for someone you love, than be put through the merciless horror of being ashamed of someone you love.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they’re not what you hoped for them.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

“If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

“If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”

Jane Wagner (1935) Playwright, actress

“It's not enough to believe! Don't you see that, you stupid girl? You could spend your whole life hoping and believing! If a love affair is one-sided, then it's only ever a question, never an answer. You can't live your life waiting for an answer.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

“"But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart at all — without any place even for a heart to live in." "I cannot quite tell," she said; "but I am sure she would not look so beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with her before you saw her beauty … But the chief thing that makes her beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she loves the love of any man; and when she finds one in her power, her desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not for the sake of his love either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own beauty, through the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely—with a self-destructive beauty…"”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

“Living with someone you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone, if the one that you love doesn't love you.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

“Could you fall in love with her if she wasn't smarter than you? I mean, she may not be smarter than you. But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? Think now.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient