78. You were careful not to say those words that soon became our private altar. I had said them many times before, dropping them coins into a wishing well, hoping they would make me come true. I had said many times before but not to you. I had given them as forget-me-nots to girls who should have known better. I had used them as bullets and barter. I don’t like think of myself an as insincere person but if I say I love and I don’t mean it then what else am I? Will I cherish you, adore you, make way for you, make myself better for you, look at you and always see you, tell you the truth? And if love is not those things then what things?

- Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

79. Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.

- Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper (I actually hate this book, but this is a lovely quote)

80. On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself — on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life.

- Simone de Beauvoir

81. I asked her, “Could we kiss for a little bit?”

“Excuse me,” she said, although, on the other hand, she didn’t pull her head back.

I told her, “Humans are the only animal that blushes, laughs, has religion, wages war, and kisses with lips. So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are.”

“And the more you wage war?”

- JS Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close