"The truth is always an insult or a joke, lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyones comfort" - Arturo Binewski."
— Katherine Dunn

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe

"I was thinking about the first time I ever saw you," he said, "and how after that I couldn't forget you. I wanted to, but I couldn't stop myself. I forced Hodge to let me be the one who came to find you and bring you back to the Institue. And even back then, in that stupid coffee shop, when I saw you sitting on that couch with Simon, even then that felt wrong to me-- I should have been the one sitting with you. The one who made you laugh like that. I couldn't get rid of that feeling. That it should have been me. And the more I knew you, the more I felt it--it had never been like that for me before. I'd always wanted a girl and then gotten to know her and not wanted her anymore, but with you the feeling just got stronger and stronger until that night when you showed up at Renwick's and I knew."
— Cassandra Clare (City of Glass)

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."
— Elbert Hubbard

"Even more, I had never meant to love him. One thing I truly knew - knew it in the pit of my stomach, in the center of my bones, knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, knew it deep in my empty chest - was how love gave someone the power to break you.
I'd been broken beyond repair."
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon)

"I’ve met a man and fallen in love with him. I allowed myself to fall in love for one simple reason: I’m not expecting anything to come of it. I know that, in three months’ time, I’ll be far away and he’ll be just a memory, but I couldn’t stand living without love any longer; I had reached my limit…
Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit, when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meeting are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself, and our universe changes directions."
— Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes: A Novel)

"Just because you are married don't believe your fairy tale is complete."
— Francesca Castagnoli (Princess: You Know Who You Are)

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you."
— Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451)

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up."
— Neil Gaiman (The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones)

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way."
— Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets/Cien Sonetos De Amor)

"Just because life is hard and always ends in a bad way doesn't mean that all stories have to. Even if that's what they tell us in school and the New York Book Review."
— James Patterson (Sundays at Tiffany's)

"By the River Piedra I sat down and wept. There is a legend that everything that falls into the waters of this river –– leaves, insects, the feathers of birds ––is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. If only I could tear out my heart and hurl it into the current, then my pain and longing would be over, and I could finally forget.

By the River Piedra I sat down and wept. The winter air chills the tears on my cheeks, and my tears fall into the cold waters that course past me. Somewhere, this river joins another, then another, until –– far from my heart and sight –– all of them merge with the sea.

May my tears run just as far, that my love might never know that one day I cried for him. May my tears run just as far, that I might forget the River Piedra, the monastery, the church in the Pyrenees, the mists, and the paths we walked together.

I shall forget the roads, the mountains, and the fields of my dreams –– the dreams that will never come true.

I remember my “magic moment” –– that instant when a “yes” or a “no” can change one’s life forever. It seems so long ago now. It is hard to believe that it was only last week that I had found my love once again, and then lost him.

I am writing this story on the bank of the River Piedra. My hands are freezing, my legs are numb, and every minute I want to stop.

“Seek to live. Remembrance is for the old,” he said.

Perhaps love makes us old before our time –– or young, if youth has passed. But how can I not recall those moments? That is why I write –– to try to turn sadness into longing, solitude into remembrance. So that when I finish telling myself the story, I cam toss it into the Piedra. That’s what the woman who has given me shelter told me to do. Only then –– in the words of one of the saints –– will the water extinguish what flames have written.

All love stories are the same."
— Paulo Coelho

"There is a period between each night and day when one dies for a few hours, neither dreaming nor thinking nor tossing nor hating nor loving, but dying for a little while because life progresses in just such a way."
— John Okada (No-No Boy)

"In your life I am a star, and this took great effort. In my life you're a star and all it took was a smile."
— Edward R. Grey

"The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter."
— Paulo Coelho (Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption)

"Just because a guy reads comics doesn't mean he can't start some $@#%!"
— Brodie Bruce (Kevin Smith)

"'You cold or something?' he said. She strained against him; she wanted to pass clear through him: 'It's a chill, it's nothing'; and then, pushing a little away: 'Say you love me.'

'I said it.'

'No, oh no. You haven't. I was listening. And you never do.'

'Well, give me time.'

'Please.'

He sat up and glanced at a clock across the room. It was after five. Then decisively he pulled off his windbreaker and began to unlace his shoes.

'Aren't you going to, Clyde?'

He grinned back at her. 'Yeah, I'm going to.'

'I don't mean that; and what's more, I don't like it: you sound as though you were talking to a whore.'

'Come off it, honey. You didn't drag me up here to tell you about love.'

'You disgust me,' she said.

'Listen to her! She's sore!'

A silence followed that circulated like an aggrieved bird. Clyde said, 'You want to hit me, huh? I kind of like you when you're sore: that's the kind of girl you are,' which made Grady light in his arms when he lifted and kissed her. 'You still want me to say it?' Her head slumped on his shoulder. 'Because I will,' he said, fooling his fingers in her hair. 'Take off your clothes--and I'll tell it to you good.'"
— Truman Capote (Summer Crossing: A Novel)

"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"The truth is the thing I invented so I could live."
— Nicole Krauss (The History of Love)

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

"Yes, my mind was wandering. I wished I were there with someone who could bring peace to my heart someone with whom I could spend a little time without being afraid that i would lose him the next day. With that reassurance, the time would pass more slowly. We could be silent for a while because we'd know we had the rest of our lives together for conversation. I wouldn't have to worry about serious matters, about difficult decisions and hard words."
— Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept)

"Love is irrational, I reminded myself. The more you loved someone, the less sense anything made."
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon)

"That's the beautiful thing about being human, things change.
-Edward"
— Stephenie Meyer

"There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread)

"It's very much like you're trying to reach Infinity. You know it's there, but you just don't know where--but just because you can never reach it doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for."
— Norman Juster

""You really love her don't you," she said.
"With all my heart."
She looked as sad as I'd ever seen her.
"What's your heart telling you to do?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe", she said gently,"You're trying to hard to hear it.""
— Nicholas Sparks

"In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire. Anything else is fantasy."
— Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept)

"Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
— Paulo Coelho (Brida)

"Suicide is just a moment, Lexy told me. This is how she described it to me. For just a moment, it doesn't matter that you've got people who love you and the sun is shining and there's a movie coming out this weekend that you've been dying to see. It hits you all of a sudden that nothing is ever going to be okay, ever, and you kind of dare yourself. You pick up a knife and press it gently to your skin, you look out a nineteenth-story window and you think, I could just do it. I could just do it. And most of the time, you look at the height and you get scared, or you think about the poor people on the sidewalk below - what if there are kids coming home from school and they have to spend the rest of their lives trying to forget this terrible thing you're going to make them see? And the moment's over. You think about how sad it would've been if you never got to see that movie, and you look at your dog and wonder who would've taken care of her if you had gone. And you go back to normal. But you keep it there in your mind. Even if you never take yourself up on it, it gives you a kind of comfort to know that the day is yours to choose. You tuck it away in your brain like sour candy tucked in your cheek, and the puckering memory it leaves behind, the rough pleasure of running your tongue over its strange terrain, is exactly the same.... The day was hers to choose, and perhaps in that treetop moment when she looked down and saw the yard, the world, her life, spread out below her, perhaps she chose to plunge toward it headlong. Perhaps she saw before her a lifetime of walking on the ruined earth and chose instead a single moment in the air"
— Carolyn Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel)

"…she, with her affection and her gaiety, had been largely responsible for him having rediscovered the meaning of life, her love had driven him to the far corners of the Earth, because he needed to be rich enough to buy some land and live in peace with her for the rest of their days. It was his utter confidence in this fragile creature, that had made him fight with honor, because he knew that after a battle he could forget all the horrors of war in her arms, and that, despite all the women he had known, only there in her arms could he close his eyes and sleep like a child."
— Paulo Coelho (Brida)

"Ester asked why people are sad.
"That’s simple," says the old man. "They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams."
Ester remarks that many people say to her, "You're lucky, you know what you want from life, whereas I don't even know what I want to do."
"Of course they know," replies the nomad. "How many people do you know who say: I've never done what I wanted, but then, at some point, they must have known what it was that they did want. As for life, it's just a story that other people tell us about the world and about how we should behave in the world.
"Even worse are those people who say: I'm happy because I'm sacrificing my life for those I love."
"And do you think that the people who love us want to see us suffering for their sakes? Do you think that love is a source of suffering?"
"To be honest, yes."
"Well, it shouldn't be."
— Paulo Coelho (The Zahir)

"Not because of me, not because of you, just that the summer, embracing both of us together, put me so close to you there could be no escape."
— Natalya Gorbanevskaya

"'do you love me?' i asked her. she smiled. 'yes.' 'do you want me to be happy?' as i asked her this i felt my heart beginning to reace. 'of corse i do.' 'will you do something for me then?' she looked away, sadness crossing her features. 'i dont know if i can anymore.' she said. 'but if you could, would you?' i cannot adequately describe the intensity of what i was feeling at that moment. love, anger, sadness, hope, and fear, whirling together sharpened by the nervousness i was feeling. jamie looked at me curiously any my breaths became shallower. suddenly i knew that id never felt as strongly for another person as i did at that moment. as i returned her gaze, this simple realization made me wish for the millionth time that i could make all this go away. had it been possible, i would have traded my life for hers. i wanted to tell her my thoughts, but the sound of her voice suddenly silenced the emotions inside me. 'yes' she finally said, her voice weak yet somehow still full of promise. ' i would.' finally getting control of myself i kissed her again, then brot my hand to her face, gently running my fingers over her cheek. i marveled at the softness of her skin, the gentleness i saw in her eyes. even now she was perfect. my throat began to tighten again, but as i said, i knew wat i had to do. since i had to accept that it was not within my power to cure her, what i wanted to do was give her something that shed wanted. it was wat my heart had been telling me to do all along. jamie, i understood then, had already given me the answer id been searching for, the answer my heart needed to find. shed told me outside mr. jenkins office, the night wed asked him about doing the play. i smiled softly, and she returned my affection with a slight squeeze of my hand, as if trusting me in wat i was about to do. encouraged, i leaned closer and took a deep breath. when i exhaled, these were the words that flowed with my breath. 'will you marry me?'"
— Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)

"Labels are for cans of soup not people. Don't label people on their outer appearance. Just because they may wear hollister or any of those other places' clothing, doesn't mean their cool. so, sorry if you are one of those people and you think you're cool. =/"
— Ayanna M.

""Soetimes looking at the two of them together took my breath away. Sometimes it made me smile. Sometimes it made me jeolous. But it always made me feel alone. It also always made me happy when I saw her smiling back at me. It always made me happy when I knew that could call her at anytime when I was sad, and she would drop everything and run to me. It always made me happy when I talked to her, and felt I had no reason in the world to hold back anything.""
— Myself, Cursed Angels

"Love came in so many forms. We love for weakness or strength, she thought, for security or wildness, for money, or beauty, or sometimes for sadness. Whatever reason, the brain turned giddy with self-worth, and self-worth became indelibly linked to the one who was loved."
— Elizabeth Cox (The Slow Moon: A Novel)

"I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it."
— Oprah Winfrey

""People always say the greatest love story in the world is Romeo and Juliet. I don't know. At fourteen, at seventeen, I remember, it takes over your whole life." Alice was worked up now, her face flushed and alive, her hands cutting through the night-blooming air. "You think about nobody, nothing else, you don't eat or sleep, you just think about this . . . it's overwhelming. I know, I remember. But is it love? Like how you have cheap brandy when you're young and you think it's marvelous, just so elegant, and you don't know, you don't know anything . . . because, you've never tasted anything better. You're fourteen."

It was no time for lying. "I think it's love"

"You do?"

"I think maybe it's the only true love."

She was about to say something, and stopped herself. I'd surprised her, I suppose. "How sad if you're right," she said, closing her eyes for a moment. "Because we never end up with them. How sad and stupid if that's how it works.""
— Andrew Sean Greer (The Confessions of Max Tivoli)

"Just because we are wearing lipstick doesn't mean we can't kick your ass!"
— Tommy Lee

"A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place."
— Paulo Coelho

"Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort."
— Henry Rollins

"Lucas: Because it´s only when you´re tested that you truly discover who you are. And it´s only when you´re tested that you discover who you can be. The person that you want to be does exist, somewhere in the other side of hard work and faith, and belief and beyond the heartache and fear of what life has."
— One Tree Hill

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."
— Abraham Lincoln

"Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad."
— Sharon Creech (Absolutely Normal Chaos)

"If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day."
— Paulo Coelho

"...there are two types of people in the world: those who prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone."
— Nicole Krauss (The History of Love)

"He dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love, because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her. Petra Cotes, for her part, loved him more and more as she felt his love increasing, and that was how in the ripeness of autumn she began to believe once more in the youthful superstition that poverty was the servitude of love. Both looked back then on the wild revelry, the gaudy wealth, and the unbridled fornication as an annoyance and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude. Madly in love after so many years of sterile complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of living each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs."
— Gabriel García Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude)

"It's not my story anymore: whenever I speak about the past now, I feel as if I were talking about something that has nothing to do with me. All that remains in the present are the voice, the presence, and the importance of fulfilling my mission. I don't regret difficulties I experienced; I think they helped me to become the person I am today, I feel the way a warrior must feel after years of training; he doesn't remember the details of everything he learned, but he knows how to strike when the time is right."
— Paulo Coelho (The Zahir)

"i am both happy and sad at the same time, and im still trying to figure out how that could be."
— Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)