Leo Tolstoy

All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.

Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand. (Anna Karenina)

Anything is better than lies and deceit!

How can one be well…when one suffers morally?

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.

I have a rule, and that is to never look at somebody’s face while we’re having sex; because, number one, what if I know the guy?

All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.

Don’t base a relationship on sex. You need love, compassion and caring. Then sex can be a reflection of that.

The only other person who has a clue about what this is, the good, the bad, is your partner.

I never felt I was too protective. I felt I was functioning as a dam against the river of sh*t that comes pouring down on artists, and it was a job that I took very seriously.

One day it just hit me. This is it. You are not in love. So either stay in it because you have a child or be brave and find the man of your dreams and marry him for real.

Of all the various kinds of sexual intercourse, this has the least to recommend it. As an amusement, it is too fleeting; as an occupation, it is too wearing; as a public exhibition, there is no money in it. It is unsuited to the drawing room, and in the most cultured society it has long been banished from the social board. It has at last, in our day of progress and improvement, been degraded to brotherhood with flatulence. Among the best bred, these two arts are now indulged only in private– though by consent of the whole company, when only males are present, it is still permissible, in good society, to remove the embargo on the fundamental sigh.

My boyfriend and I live together, which means we don’t have sex-ever. Now that the milk is free, we’ve both become lactose intolerant.

There has never been a merging of two lives where significant problems of daily living did not occur. One way or another, your relationship is going to be affected. The only question is how. There’s a big difference between knowing and doing. It’s not what happens between partners that determines the outcome of a relationship, it’s how they handle what happens. If all you deal with in your relationship is problems, then you will have a problem relationship. If you want your pound of flesh with full acknowledgement that you’re right, your future will be dim.

[a metaphor for the end of her marriage] The process of divorce is about loading a blanket, throwing it up, watching it all spin, and worrying what stuff will break when it lands.

Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?

I think when you get married, it’s not a totally free ride – it’s not without its unglamorous periods and its fights and its angry noons and silent dawns or vice-versa.

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.

Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt.

Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.