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

Thomas Merton: "The beginning of love..."

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,
and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only
the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

–Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island

Dave Eggers: "This is the truth..."

"This is the truth, and it's either unromantic or infinitely more romantic than you can imagine."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "Wait until you're older..."

"Wait until you’re older to try something like this – a lot older, I think - but then don’t wait much longer… I can’t believe we waited so long ourselves."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "He had calm where..."

"He had calm where I had chaos and wisdom where I had just a huge gaping always-moving mouth."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Jan Karon: "I shall give you..."

"I shall give you as much love and affection and happiness as I am capable of giving. Which, I believe... is quite a lot."

—Jan Karon, A Light in the Window

Martha Beck: "The meaning of life..."

"The meaning of life is not what happens to people... The meaning of life is what happens between people."

—Martha Beck, Expecting Adam

Jamie Patterson: "Endings rarely announce themselves."

"Endings rarely announce themselves. They steal in and go nameless until long after their work is done."

—Jamie Patterson, Lost Edens

Jamie Patterson: "He is gone..."

"He is gone.
I couldn't save him.
I couldn't help him.
I couldn't give him what he needed.
I ruined myself in trying."

—Jamie Patterson, Lost Edens

Jamie Patterson: "I watch as his..."

"I watch as his breathing slows, and I try not to let the tears rolling down my cheek to the pillow make a sound when they land."

—Jamie Patterson, Lost Edens

Deborah Reed: "...and he wonders if..."

"...and he wonders if loving a woman, even one who breaks your heart, has a way of keeping a man going for another day."

—Deborah Reed, Carry Yourself Back to Me (p271)

Deborah Reed: "A mind can think..."

"A mind can think a lot of things in the short time it takes to open a mouth."

—Deborah Reed, Carry Yourself Back to Me (p72)

Deborah Reed: "He finds her most..."

"He finds her most beautiful in the morning. Maybe it's just seeing her for the first time of the day."

—Deborah Reed, Carry Yourself Back to Me (p18)

Emily Bronte: "He's more myself than..."

"He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same… If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a might stranger… He’s always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."

—Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Christopher Moore: "Scratch a cynic and..."

"Scratch a cynic and you’ll find a disappointed romantic."

—Christopher Moore, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

Jan Karon: "Oh, how she despised..."

"Oh, how she despised the torment of loving like a girl instead of like… like a sophisticated woman – whatever that might be!"

—Jan Karon, A Common Life

Elizabeth Gilbert: "We just keep on..."

"We just keep on trying, again and again, no matter how ill-advised it may be, to recreate Aristophanes' two-headed, eight-limbed figure of seamless human union."

—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: "There is hardly a...

"There is hardly a more gracious gift that we can offer somebody than to accept them fully, to love them almost despite themselves."

—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