Field Notes on Love Quotes

“What do you love most about the world?”
Ida smiles. “I love that every generation thinks they’ve invented it. They think they’re the first ones to fall in love and get their hearts broken, to feel loss and passion and pain. And in a way, they are. We’ve been there before, of course. But for young people, that doesn’t matter. Everything is new. Which I love, because it means everything is always beginning again. It’s hopeful, I think. At least to me.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Do you ever feel like what’s happening at this moment will never happen again? Like you could never repeat it, no matter how hard you tried?”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Most things are easier than you think,” she says. “It’s deciding to do them that’s hard.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“That’s the thing. You almost never know when you’re saying goodbye to someone forever.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Love is... I don't know. Something bigger than that. It's like the sun."
"In that you can get burnt by it?"
"No," she says wearily, but already her eyes have that starry quality they get whenever she's thinking of Alex. "In that it makes everything brighter and happier. And it warms you from the inside out.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“His heart aches, not because he loves her—he hasn’t for a long time now—but because he loved her once, and that’s something that never completely leaves you.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“It's like I'd been living on a map my whole life and have only now realized the world is actually a globe.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Love isn’t magic. It doesn’t transcend time and space. It doesn’t fix anything. It’s just love.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“It’s not supposed to reflect reality,” she said. “Reality is all well and good. But sometimes you just want to pretend the world is a better place than it actually is. That great and wonderful things can happen. That love triumphs over everything.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“what do you love most about the world?"
Ida smiles. "I love that every generation thinks they've invented it. They think they're the first ones to fall in love and get their hearts broken, to feel loss and passion and pain. And in a way, they are. We've been there before, of course. But for young people, that doesn't matter. Everything is new. Which I love, because it means everything is always beginning again. It's hopeful, I think. At least to me.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“You don’t know what happiness is – what it really means – until it’s taken away from you. Then you realise the world will never be as bright as it was.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“For starters, I don't even know what my dreams are. All I know is that I feel... restless. And I'd love to do something different, you know? Something new.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“It’s a long story,” he says eventually, and he can almost feel her
peering up at him through the dark.
“The good ones usually are.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“I suppose my biggest fear is never seeing my son again. You don't know what happiness is - what it really means - until it's taken away from you. Then you realize the world will never be as bright as it was.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“I just mean . . . when I come up with a great idea for a film, it’s like being drunk. You know that giddy feeling you get when you’re psyched about something? It’s exciting because it’s all potential. But then you wake up the next morning and reality has sunk in. you start to wonder if the idea was really good as you thought, and you suddenly see all the holes in the plan, and that high from the night before starts to crash. That’s the hangover.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“But with Hugo, there was no thinking, only feeling. Everything else melted away, and the world went quiet. There was something almost inevitable about it, something automatic, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, to be kissing him like that.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely sources.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Look, he’s not totally wrong.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after twelve years at the gallery, it’s that sometimes art isn’t a matter of skill or technique. Sometimes it is about experience. So maybe you’ve got some more living to do. But that’s the case with everyone, whether you’ve grown up in a big city or a small town, whether you’re going to school in Paris or not.”
“I know that. It’s just…”
“It’s hard. It is. But the hurt and rejection and disappointment? It’ll help you grow as an artist. And it’ll all be worth it when you finally get it right.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Sometimes it’s good for you to be spectacularly stupid.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Everyone grows up dreaming of something different, Hugo. And that's okay. It's what makes life so interesting.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“I love that every generation thinks they’ve invented it. They think they’re the first ones to fall in love and get their hearts broken, to feel loss and passion and pain. And in a way, they are. We’ve been there before, of course. But for young people, that doesn’t matter. Everything is new. Which I love, because it means everything is always beginning again. It’s hopeful, I think. At least to me.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Be good. Be brave. Be yourself.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“The truth is, love isn’t just one word. At least not to him. It’s different things for different people.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“I’m starting to realise that a lot of people don’t put much stock in dreams. They think of them like these faraway planets they never really expect to reach. I was only supposed to step out of my life for a week, but that’s another thing nobody tells you: that once you get there, it’s never enough. There are always more planets to see.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“It was a stupid idea.”
“Sometimes those can be good for you.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Don’t give it up without a fight just because you’re scared.”
“I’m not – “
“You are. And that’s okay. It’s scary to think about doing something totally different. Especially something like this. To go off on your own for a year, leave your family behind, take such a big chance – I think it’s really brave. But it’s not gonna just happen. If it’s what you want, you have to make your own magic. Lay it all on the line,”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“I sort of missed you.”
“I sort of missed you too.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“You’ve known for a long time that you want something different. It just took you a while to figure out what it was.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“She knows this can’t last – whatever it is; that a few days from now, they’ll be getting off at different stations, going in different directions. But she doesn’t care. Because for now, they have this: a happiness so big it doesn’t leave the room for worries.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

“Or maybe he’s just not used to being alone; maybe that’s something you need to practice, like playing football or the violin.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love