'Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make, one day you will kiss a man you can't breathe without and find that breath is of little consequence.'

'Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being 'in love', which any fool can do. Age does not protect you

'There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement and acceptance, In all the world, there is no love for you like mine. Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.'

'There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. If I had a flower for every time I thought of you ... I could walk through my garden forever, I desire a love so loud that is shatters the darkness — its echoes reverberating through the rising and falling of the sun. I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don't tell me to leave.'