Let's Talk About Love Quotes

“If knowing you’re asexual makes someone see you differently, then they don’t deserve to be in your life.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Why did she have to spend the rest of her life coming out over and over and over...? And once she did, would people always expect her to talk about it? It would always be a huge deal, she would always be subjected to questions, and she would always have to defend herself. Would it ever stop feeling like A Thing, a barrier, between her and everyone else?”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it to be and should be respected as such. For Alice, it was staying up late and talking about nothing and everything and anything because you didn’t want to sleep—you’d miss them too much. It was catching yourself smiling at them because wow, how does this person exist?? before they caught you. It was the intimacy of shared secrets. The comfort of unconditional acceptance. It was a confidence in knowing no matter what happened that person would always be there for you.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“But you know! You get it. I'm not trying to trivialize anyone else and what they have to do, but if I go to my parents and say I'm a lesbian, they would know what I meant. If I went to my siblings and said I'm bisexual, they would know what I meant. If I tell anyone I'm asexual, they're going to look at me like there's something wrong. They're going to tell me to go to a doctor. They're going to tell me I'm too young to know what I want or I'm still developing. Or they'll tell me how important sex is to finding a good man. Or they'll think they can fix me, that I'm lying because I don't want to sleep with them. It's hard enough trying to explain that word, so how in the hell am I going to explain I'm biromantic asexual? They're really going to think I'm making this shit up.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Why can't I find someone who loves being with me, as is, as much as I love being with them?”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“The bottom line was her body had never shown so much as a flicker of sexual interest in anyone. But that didn’t mean she liked being alone. That didn’t mean she wasn’t lonely. That didn’t mean she didn’t want romance and didn’t want to fall in love. It didn’t mean she couldn’t love someone just as fiercely as they loved her.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“What made sex so integral that people couldn’t separate the emotional love they felt from one physical act?”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“You can’t let one or two bad experiences stop you from being happy.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Black people have to be perfect, inhumanely good at everything, and even then we can fail, because that's the way the system is set up. It is rigged against us.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“First of all”—Feenie pointed at her—“you are not broken and I don’t ever want to hear that again. Second, being attracted to one person doesn’t necessarily change who you are. Maybe you’re graysexual instead of straight up ace. There’s just something about the way Takumi’s genetic code arranged his face and body that appeals to your brain chemistry. It’s insta-lust. Enjoy it for what it is.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Neither of them believed in forever, but for now wasn’t nearly long enough.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“if I go to my parents and say I’m a lesbian, they would know what I meant. If I went to my siblings and said I’m bisexual, they would know what I meant. If I tell anyone I’m asexual, they’re going to look at me like there’s something wrong.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Wherever I am, you are always welcome.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Everything you do and say is so endearing, and it's ridiculous because I can't stop thinking I need this person in my life. I need to be near you. If I could stand close enough to you maybe I could absorb some of your shine.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Through it all, being demeaned and feeling disheartened and dispirited, Alice was expected to be nice. To overlook the microaggressions when they continuously rained down on her and find solidarity wherever she could. She was expected to endure in silence.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“It’s okay to miss her or what you had because it was special to you, I think. When someone you love does something terrible to you, everyone tries to make you feel better by saying you’ll get over it and that you should hate that person, but you don’t. Maybe you can, maybe you should, but you don’t want to. So, yeah be upset.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“She wanted to kiss him like he was the darkest night sky and her lips had the power to make stars.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“I really want us to grow old together, you know? Go through all the typical life stuff together, even if that means we can only e-mail each other once a week because you moved to the middle of nowhere in Nebraska with your ten kids, and I'm still California because it's amazing. Just like in that one movie - we'll never lose touch with each other, ever. Is that weird?!
No, Feenie said. It's perfectly fucking normal.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“I don‘t think it‘s wrong to cut people who feel toxic to you out of your life even if you love them.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Alice's Cutie Code TM Version 2.1 - Colour Expansion Pack

(aka Because this stuff won’t stop being confusing and my friends are mean edition)
From Red to Green, with all the colours in between (wait, okay, that rhymes, but green to red makes more sense. Dang.)
From Green to Red, with all the colours in between
Friend Sampling Group: Fennie, Casey, Logan, Aisha and Jocelyn

Green
 Friends’ Reaction: Induces a minimum amount of warm and fuzzies. If you don’t say “aw”, you’re “dead inside”
 My Reaction: Sort of agree with friends minus the “dead inside” but because that’s a really awful thing to say. Puppies are a good example. So is Walter Bishop.

Green-Yellow
 Friends’ Reaction: A noticeable step up from Green warm and fuzzies. Transitioning from cute to slightly attractive. Acceptable crush material. “Kissing.”
 My Reaction: A good dance song. Inspirational nature photos. Stuff that makes me laugh. Pairing: Madison and Allen from splash

Yellow
 Friends’ Reaction: Something that makes you super happy but you don’t know why. “Really pretty, but not too pretty.” Acceptable dating material. People you’d want to “bang on sight.”
 My Reaction: Love songs for sure! Cookies for some reason or a really good meal. Makes me feel like it’s possible to hold sunshine, I think. Character: Maxon from the selection series. Music: Carly Rae Jepsen

Yellow-Orange
 Friends’ Reaction: (When asked for non-sexual examples, no one had an answer. From an objective perspective, *pushes up glasses* this is the breaking point. Answers definitely skew toward romantic or sexual after this.)
 My Reaction: Something that really gets me in my feels. Also art – oil paintings of landscapes in particular. (What is with me and scenery? Maybe I should take an art class) Character: Dean Winchester. Model: Liu Wren.

Orange
 Friends’ Reaction: “So pretty it makes you jealous. Or gay.”
 “Definitely agree about the gay part. No homo, though. There’s just some really hot dudes out there.”(Feenie’s side-eye was so intense while the others were answering this part LOLOLOLOLOL.) A really good first date with someone you’d want to see again.
 My Reaction: People I would consider very beautiful. A near-perfect season finale. I’ve also cried at this level, which was interesting.
o Possible tie-in to romantic feels? Not sure yet.

Orange-Red
 Friends’ Reaction: “When lust and love collide.” “That Japanese saying ‘koi no yokan.’ It’s kind of like love at first sight but not really. You meet someone and you know you two have a future, like someday you’ll fall in love. Just not right now.” (<-- I like this answer best, yes.) “If I really, really like a girl and I’m interested in her as a person, guess. I’d be cool if she liked the same games as me so we could play together.”
 My Reaction: Something that gives me chills or has that time-stopping factor. Lots of staring. An extremely well-decorated room. Singers who have really good voices and can hit and hold superb high notes, like Whitney Houston. Model: Jasmine Tooke. Paring: Abbie and Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow
o Romantic thoughts? Someday my prince (or princess, because who am I kidding?) will come?

Red (aka the most controversial code)
 Friends’ Reaction: “Panty-dropping levels” (<-- wtf Casey???).
 “Naked girls.” ”Ryan. And ripped dudes who like to cook topless.”
 “K-pop and anime girls.” (<-- Dear. God. The whole table went silent after he said that. Jocelyn was SO UNCOMFORTABLE but tried to hide it OMG it was bad. Fennie literally tried to slap some sense into him.)
 My Reaction: Uncontrollable staring. Urge to touch is strong, which I must fight because not everyone is cool with that. There may even be slack-jawed drooling involved. I think that’s what would happen. I’ve never seen or experienced anything that I would give Red to.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“I wasn't trying to have sex with you the other night," he said, "And I am so, so sorry if I made you feel that way."
He was so close and so far away, as if there was an imaginary pane of glass between them. She wanted him to hug her and make the tension go way.
"No, I didn't think that at all. That's not why I told you."
"This should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway, partly because I want to, but also because I think you need to hear it. If knowing you're asexual makes someone see you differently, then they don't deserve to be in your life. My feelings for you are exactly the same as they were an hour ago. This doesn't change anything between us.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Stop being silly. You know what I mean.” No, she really didn’t, and she hated when people made that assumption. If she had known, why would she bother asking?”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Alice’s head locked into place as realization sank in. Meeting Takumi had challenged everything she thought she knew about herself, made her work to find out who she was on a fundamental level. He challenged her in the best way possible, wholly unaware of the effect he had on her, pushing her so far out of her comfort zone she had to question everything. She had discovered, no, was still discovering, who she was now, who she wanted to be, what she could and could not handle. He had given her a reason to reconnect with herself.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“What made sex so integral that people couldn't separate the emotional love they felt from the physical act?
Love shouldn't hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“Lagging sent her into a cataclysmic rage and buffering was her absolute kryptonite”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“It was confusing and awful and made her want to break things.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“He's beautiful, Feenie. I almost melted into primordial soup of Alice.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“She made you want to pick her up, put her in your pocket, and then run because abduction is illegal.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“What made sex so integral that people couldn’t separate the emotional
love they felt from one physical act?
Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another
person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it
to be and should be respected as such.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love

“- Have you thought about joining any clubs on your college campus as a mean to build a support system for yourself? Engaging with others who identify as you do could help bring about a level of comfort that will enable you to speak freely."
Alice resisted the urge to sort. "Nah. I think those are great for some people, especially if you're the right color, not bi, and certainly not ace. So.”
― Claire Kann, Let's Talk About Love