Who has not loved twice? More than twice? Who has never broken a heart?
Annie Dillard, The Maytrees
Only then does he realize what he has done to Mirabelle, how wanting a square inch of her and not all of her has damaged them both, and how he cannot justify his actions except that, well, it was life.
Steve Martin, Shopgirl
When you’re done with a phone call, you let someone go. Or when you, take someone to the airport, you let them go. When you tell someone you love her, she gives you everything, and then you go out with someone else. That is not letting her go, that’s dumping her.
Emma Roberts, Scream 4
I didn’t know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It’s huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And every day it’s proved right it grows a little more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once loved weak and cowed beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once loved, it’s for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?
Jeanette Winterson
I thought I was your destination. Looks like I was just another stop on the line.
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things
The saddest part of a broken heart /
Isn’t the ending so much as the start /
The tragedy starts from the very first spark /
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart /
Feist, Let it die
I’ve been dumped before, Renee. This isn’t pain I’m feeling, it’s nostalgia.
Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal
I will not be the first one to speak. And if he never calls me again, I’ll always think of him fondly. As an asshole.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City
I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.
John Green, Looking for Alaska
There’s nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you’ve hung it so careful.
Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
He reached for her hand. ‘I don’t want to lose you.’ His voice was almost in a whisper. She could feel the tears again, and she fought them back. ‘But you don’t want to keep me either, do you?’ To that, he had no response.
Nicholas Sparks, The Rescue
And I was — this is just how I was afraid you’d take it. I knew it, that you’d think this means you were right to be afraid all the time and never feel secure or trust me. I knew it’d be ‘See, you’re leaving after all when you promised you wouldn’t.’ I knew it but I’m trying to explain anyway, okay? And I know you probably won’t understand this either, but —wait— just try to listen and maybe absorb this, okay? Ready? Me leaving is not the confirmation of all your fears about me. It is not. It’s because of them. Okay? Can you see that? It’s your fear I can’t take. It’s your distrust and fear I’ve been trying to fight. And I can’t anymore. I’m out of gas on it. If I loved you even a little less maybe I could take it. But this is killing me, this constant feeling that I am always scaring you and never making you feel secure. Can you see that?
David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
She’ll only break your heart, it’s a fact. And even though I warn you, even though I guarantee you that the girl will only hurt you terribly, you’ll still pursue her. Ain’t love grand?
Anne Bancroft, Great Expectations
She’s gone. She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.
John Cusack, Say Anything
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lines, lyrics and literary fragments that call for a pause