Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames.
Romantic love can be terrifying. We experience another human being as enormously important to us. So there is surrender - not a surrender to the other person so much as to our feeling for the other person. What is the obstacle? The possibility of loss.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
Any kind of novelty or excitement drives up dopamine in the brain, and dopamine is associated with romantic love.
I'm very much a romantic. I'm highly attuned to an older sensibility, which I believe is alive and well. We're not that far ahead of the Romantic Age in society.
There is something romantic about the world being a diverse place, where every place has a Starbucks and Denny's.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
Especially around Valentine's Day, it's easy to find advice about sustaining a successful marriage, with suggestions for 'date nights' and romantic dinners for two. But as we spend more and more of our lives outside marriage, it's equally important to cultivate the skills of successful singlehood.
The vibe of my wedding is kind of going to be ethereal. Simple and modern, in a way, but with a lot of greenery. So, eucalyptus, olive branches, moss, and candles - it's going to be very... I want it to feel very comfortable, but obviously sleek.
If you say my eyes are beautiful, it's because they are looking at you.
Am I a romantic? I've seen 'Wuthering Heights' ten times. I'm a romantic.
You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you, but that's an insult to me. I know about you.
So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.
You could hold me and I could hold you. And it would be so peaceful. Completely peaceful. Like the feeling of sleep, but awake in it together.
If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.
We do ritualistic animal sacrifice. We host orgies on our trampoline, every other Sunday. You didn't get our Twitter feed on that? I'm really sorry! And then, every once in awhile, we run through the city and drain people and drink their blood. It's really very romantic.
I don't think any of the early Romantic composers knew how to write for the piano... The music of that era is full of empty theatrical gestures, full of exhibitionism, and it has a worldly, hedonistic quality that simply turns me off.
I'm a really huge fan of the old romantic comedies from the '30s and '40s... Huge fan. I love all that stuff.
Dub has been a big influence in terms of production. It's inspired so many people and so much music - in terms of music where mixing desk was the instrument. Central to that is the echo chamber, and I think there's a little bit of a romantic thing there.
Beauty is the lover's gift.
Romantic love is a trap designed to get two people to overlook each other's faults long enough to get some babymaking done. It generally only lasts for a few years at most.
I am a romantic. I want to cry when I throw out my Christmas tree, and I have a lot of feelings about magic and fantasy.
There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery.
The big stars I felt a kinship with were never the romantic leads. It wasn't Steve McQueen or Robert Redford - it was people like Walter Matthau and Anthony Quinn. My big hero was Tommy Cooper.
Essentially, I spent most of my childhood with my mother and my older sister, and I suppose I had rather a romantic vision of how things might be if there were men around; I saw myself in a country house with six children and a garden. That has never been achieved - and I still regret it.
