Hard Love Quotes

“I watched her walk away, first thinking: good riddance – who needs this abuse? And then after a minute thinking: she never really understood me anyway. Which rapidly changed to: I never understood her at all. And before long I was watching her small back disappear and thinking: there goes the only person who ever gave a damn about me.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“It's a lie, you know, to pretend that nothing is important to you. It's hiding. Believe me, I know because I hid for a long time. But now I won't do it anymore. The truth is bioluminescent. I don't lie, and I don't waste time on people who do.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“I trust the red sun setting,

the leafless November trees.

On Monday morning I look foward

fearlessly to Friday’s eve.

But humans are not as reliable

as nature, as trees.

I wonder if you’ll come back;

I trust only that you leave.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“That's what I love about writing. Once you get the words down on paper, in print, they start to make sense. It's like you don't know what you think until it dribbles from your brain down your arm and into your hand and out through your fingers and shows up on the computer screen, and you read it and realize: That's really true; I believe that.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“I'm starting to think I'll probably never have a girlfriend, which would be okay too. On those few occasions when a girl has actually flirted with me, tipped her head sideways and laughed at some stupid remark, all it did was make me angry. It seemed like she was playing a game with idiotic rules. First you laugh, then you tell a pretty lie, then you stick your tongue in each other's mouths, then you say something really mean and hurtful to each other, then you go off to find somebody else who wants to play the game. This is an activity for intelligent people? I think not.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“The only thing that can never change is death--that you just have to live with.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“A deserted beach at dawn was the perfect place to nurse my feelings of desolation, to let them trot out a bit, like a kid plays with the breaking waves, then pull them back inside for another close inspection.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“Of course I knew. It was the reason I was no longer comatose after an entire life of sleepwalking.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“Write it down, Gio. After dinner go to your room and write down what happened and how you feel about it. Your writing is good--it really is. Just don't run away from the feelings.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“If you don't know who you are, how is anybody else supposed to get to know you?”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“As long as you're alive, there's always plenty to do. You know John Berryman, the poet? He says people who are bore have no inner resources. Check it out: "Dream song #14.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“But I am not bitter because that would be a waste of my time, and wasting time is one of the only sins worth worrying about.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“I am not bitter because that would be a waste of my time, and wasting time is one of the only sins worth worrying about.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love

“That’s what I love about writing. Once you get the words down on paper, in print, they start to make sense. It’s like you don’t know what you think until it dribbles from your brain down your arm and into your hand and out through your fingers and shows up on the computer screen, and you read it and realize: That’s really true; I believe that.”
― Ellen Wittlinger, Hard Love