“If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them”

“You’ll get over it…” It’s the clichés that cause the trouble. To lose someone you love is to alter your life for ever. You don’t get over it because ‘it” is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never closes. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not made anodyne by death. This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?”

“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”

“There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”

“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.”

“Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.”