Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day.

You have to work out whether your roots are to become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. 'When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. 'Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread: remade all the time, made new.'Ģ8. In pain and sickness, it would still be dear.'Ģ6. 'I think, if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.'Ģ7. 'Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled.'Ģ5. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world.

'I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment.

'Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.'Ģ3.

What is the true meaning of love