Written on the Body
"It is no conservationist love. It is a big game hunter and you are the game. A curse on this game. How can you stick at a game when the rules keep changing? I shall call myself Alice and play croquet with the flamingoes. In Wonderland everyone cheats and love is Wonderland, isn't it? Love makes the world go round. Love is blind. All you need is love. Nobody ever died of a broken heart. You'll get over it. It'll be different when we're married. Think of the children. Time's a great healer. Still waiting for Mr Right? Miss Right? and maybe all the little Rights?
It's the clichés that cause the trouble. A precise emotion seeks a precise expression. If what I feel is not precise then should I call it love? It is so terrifying, love, that all I can do is shove it under a dump bin of pink cuddly toys and send myself a greeting card saying 'Congratulations on your Engagement'. But I am not engaged, I am deeply distracted. I am desperately looking the other way so that love won't see me. I want the diluted version, the saggy armchair of clichés."
from Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
I have always loved this book, and now that quote seems to apply more than ever.
It's the clichés that cause the trouble. A precise emotion seeks a precise expression. If what I feel is not precise then should I call it love? It is so terrifying, love, that all I can do is shove it under a dump bin of pink cuddly toys and send myself a greeting card saying 'Congratulations on your Engagement'. But I am not engaged, I am deeply distracted. I am desperately looking the other way so that love won't see me. I want the diluted version, the saggy armchair of clichés."
from Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
I have always loved this book, and now that quote seems to apply more than ever.