How unbelievably naive we both were that night. We clung hard to each other, making vows we couldn't keep and should never have spoken aloud. That's how love is sometimes. I already loved him more than I'd ever loved anything or anyone. I knew he needed me absolutely, and I wanted him to go on needing me forever.

Paula McLain

Categorized in : Night Love Is Forever

More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.

Paula McLain

sea loss talking

It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should--a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds.

Paula McLain

magic space world

If I can write one sentence, simple and true every day, I'll be satisfied.

Paula McLain

one-sentence simple writing

My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.

Paula McLain

staring

Knowing he was suffering pained me. That’s the way love tangles you up. I couldn’t stop loving him, and couldn’t shut off the feelings of wanting to care for him— but I also didn’t have to run to answer his letters. I was hurting, too, and no one was running to me.

Paula McLain

knowing hurt running

Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.

Paula McLain

wish mistake thinking

Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.

Paula McLain

speak action thinking

You are everything good and straight and fine and true—and I see that so clearly now, in the way you’ve carried yourself and listened to your own heart. You’ve changed me more than you know, and will always be a part of everything I am. That’s one thing I’ve learned from this. No one you love is ever truly lost.

Paula McLain

heart love-is way

Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved

Paula McLain

storm saved want

I also liked to look around at the houses surrounding the park and wonder about the people who filled them, what kinds of marriages they had and how they loved or hurt each other on any given day, and if they were happy, and whether they thought happiness was a sustainable thing.

Paula McLain

hurt love people

Dogs are easy. If their tails are up and their eyes are soft, you're in.

Paula McLain

eye dog tails

I'd had my share of rain. My mother's illness ... had weighed on me, but the years before had been heavy, too. I was only twenty eight.

Paula McLain

eight mother rain

This was my one brush with love. Was it love? It felt awful enough. I spent another two years crawling around in the skin of it, smoking too much and growing too thin and having stray thoughts of jumping from my balcony like a tortured heroine in a Russian novel.

Paula McLain

jumping two years

Maybe happiness was an hourglass already running out, the grains tipping, sifting past each other. Maybe it was a state of mind.

Paula McLain

mind running past

I knew that I could hate him all I wanted for the way he was hurting me, but I couldn’t ever stop loving him, absolutely, for what he was.

Paula McLain

hate hurt way

She was also incredibly confident, with a way of moving and talking that communicated that she didn't need anyone to tell her she was beautiful or worthwhile.

Paula McLain

beautiful talking moving

You have to digest life. You have to chew it up and love it all through.

Paula McLain

and-love

But in the end, fighting for a love that was already gone felt like trying to live in the ruins of a lost city.

Paula McLain

fighting cities trying

I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.

Paula McLain

made sea looks

Nothing hurts if you don't let it.

Paula McLain

ifs hurt