Laurie Frankel: "We've always been living a fairy tale..."

 "We've always been living a fairy tale... From the moment we met. From the moments before we met. we have this perfect love story. we have this love story that feels like a fairy tale and must be because how else to explain something so magical? But the problem with fairy tales is that they end, and quickly too. The lead-up is everything. Then you get transformation, love, and happily-ever-after all in one breath. That story's nice, but it's not big enough to hold us. There's no room for the hard parts. There's no room for the transformations and the loves that come next and next and next. You know what's even better than happy endings? Happy middles. All the happy with none of the finality. All the happy with room enough to grow."

- from This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Gillian Flynn: "To be kissed on..."

"To be kissed on the lips by your husband is the most decadent thing."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "What a generous thing..."

"What a generous thing that is, I realize, for a husband to try to make his wife laugh."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "People want to believe..."

"People want to believe they know other people. Parents want to believe they know their kids. Wives want to believe they know their husbands."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Jan Karon: "Everything and nothing..."

"Everything and nothing. What you did today, what I did today, what we'll do tomorrow. About God and how He's working in our lives. About my work, about your work, about life, about love, about what's for dinner and how the roses are doing..."

—Jan Karon, A Light in the Window, Cynthia's answer to Father Tim's question "What do you want to talk about?" in regards to married life

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Marriage is not prayer..."

"Marriage is not prayer. That's why you have to do it in front of others. It's a paradox, but marriage actually reconciles a lot of paradoxes: freedom with commitment, strength with subordination, wisdom with utter nincompoopery, etc. And... you have to hold your wedding guests to their end of the deal. They have to help you with your marriage; they have to support you if you falter."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Marriage has a bonsai..."

"Marriage has a bonsai energy: It's a tree in a pot with trimmed roots and clipped limbs. Mind you, bonsai can live for centuries, and their unearthly beauty is a direct result of such constriction, but nobody would ever mistake a bonsai for a free-climbing vine."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Marriage is what happens..."

"Marriage is what happens between the memorable."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "I do believe that..."

"I do believe that one must at least try to understand one's mother's marriage before embarking on a marriage of one's own."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Money brings its own..."

"Money brings its own problems, of course - but money also brings options. Money can buy child care, a separate bathroom, a vacation, the freedom from arguments over bills - all sorts of things that help stabilize a marriage."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Perhaps transcendence can be..."

"Perhaps transcendence can be found not only on solitary mountaintops or in monastic settings, but also at your own kitchen table, in the daily acceptance of your partner's most tiresome, irritating faults."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "I mean, once the..."

"I mean, once the initial madness of desire has passed and we are faced with each other as dimwitted mortal fools, how is it that any of us find the ability to love and forgive each other at all, much less enduringly?"

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "So it will come..."

"So it will come to pass for all of us - for all couples who stay with each other in love - that someday one of us will carry the shovel and the lantern on behalf of the other. We all share our houses with Time, who ticks along side us as we work at our daily lives, reminding us of our ultimate destination."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "The vows that we..."

"The vows that we make on our wedding day are a noble effort to belie this fragility, to convince ourselves that - truly - what God Almighty has brought together, no man can tear asunder. But unfortunately God Almighty is not the one who swears those wedding vows; man (unmighty) is, and man can always tear a sworn vow asunder."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Maybe the only difference..."

"Maybe the only difference between first marriage and second marriage is that the second time at least you know you are gambling."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "The only thing marriage..."

"The only thing marriage has ever done, historically and definitionally speaking, is to change. Marriage in the Western world changes with every century, adjusting itself constantly around new social standards and new notions of fairness. The "Silly Putty-like" malleability of the institution, in fact, is the only reason we still have the thing at all. Marriage survives, in other words, precisely because it evolves."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "In 1215, the church..."

"In 1215, the church took control of matrimony forever, laying down rigid new edicts about what would henceforth constitute legitimate marriage. Before 1215, a spoken vow between two consenting adults had always been considered contract enough in the eyes of the law."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Marriage becomes hard work..."

"Marriage becomes hard work once you have poured the entirety of you life's expectation for happiness in the hands of one mere person. Keeping that going is hard work."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "She had dared to..."

"She had dared to ask for happiness, and she had dared to expect that happiness out of her marriage. You can't possibly ask for more than that."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert: "There is no choice..."

"There is no choice more intensely personal, after all, than whom you choose to marry; that choice tells us, to a large extent, who you are."

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed