In a romantic funk? Baffled by love? How about a quote from Oscar Wilde to shed some light on the subject? Though most of our favorite writers have had less than perfect love lives, there’s something to be said for their insight into the elusive and complex world of romance. Is it their ability to describe human nature so clearly that lends their observations an air of wisdom? Whatever it is, we gobble up their words on that most universal of subjects: love. In no particular order, here are our top 25 author quotes on amore:
“If it is right, it happens—the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.” John Steinbeck
“You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.” William Faulkner
“In love there are two things—bodies and words.” Joyce Carol Oates
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.” Roald Dahl, The Witches
“The desire to get married is a basic and primal instinct in women. It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.”
Nora Ephron
“I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.” Alice Walker
“True love, like any other strong and addicting drug, is boring—once the tale of encounter and discovery is told, kisses quickly grow stale and caresses tiresome…except, of course, to those who share the kisses, who give and take the caresses while every sound and color of the world seems to deepen and brighten around them. As with any other strong drug, true first love is really only interesting to those who have become its prisoners.
And, as is true of any other strong and addicting drug, true first love is dangerous.” Stephen King, Wizard and Glass
“Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, protect and greet each other.” Rainer Maria Rilke
“I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty…you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.” J. D. Salinger
