Alexandra Potter

“I never know what I’m going to want to curl up in bed with.” I shrug.“How about a man?” she retorts.”

“Books might be your passion but you can’t fuck a paperback.”

“I am a hopeless romantic. A silly, ridiculous, foolish romantic. I live in a fantasy land. I need to get real. And now, for the first time, I want to get real. I want a real relationship with a real man in the real world–-with all the real problems, faults, and whatever comes with it.”

“Not doing anything can be worse than doing the wrong thing.”

“One day you'll hear that song you both liked on the radio and it won't make you cry. You'll wake up one morning and they won't be the first thing you think about, or the last thing you think about when you're falling asleep at night. Their face won't be the one you see any more when you close your eyes, or in a crowd when you're walking down a street. And when something makes you laugh, or cry, they won't be the person you want to share it with.”

“We are the sum total of our memories.Memories are the most precious things we have.Good or bad. That's what make us who we are.What would we be without them?”

“You can't make yourself fall in love, just as you can't choose who you fall in love with.”

“It was the feeling she'd had when Sam had first kissed her in the pub. When he'd first put his lips against her. She didn't know if she'd imagined it or if it had just been the effects of the booze, but it had felt as if a thousand flash bulbs were going off in her brain. As if someone had turned on a very bright, very intense light. And she;d sure as hell never wanted to switch it off.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of her right mind must be in want of a decent man.”

“No wonder everyone is keen to put their feet up and let Fate look after them. It's rather like your granddad. Or a very hands-on organised person, sort of your own personal PA. Only in my experience Fate is no such thing, and the same goes for his little brother, Destiny. Quite frankly they’ve made a real mess of things where I’m concerned. So from now on they can bugger off and stop meddling. I’m taking charge of my own life, and when it comes to love, Fate can mind its own bloody business.”

“The first time I met you, I fell in love with you there and then, but you didn't notice me. Then you stood me up. And then I met you again and I hated you. Well, I tried to hated you, but then when you cleaned up after Welly... I fell in love with you all over again.”

“So what are you doing around here?" I ask, feeling all jittery, but this time it's in a good way."Oh, I was just in the area." he says vaguely. "I thought I'd take Welly for a walk..." He trails off and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Those butterflies are going crazy in there.”

“If you want a man who's commited, go look in a mental hospital.”

“Being single isn't a terminal disease.""Try telling that to my mother.”

“Men, Grace learned, seemed to think women were all frustrated nurses.”

“When men see an attractive woman, they fantasize about sex. When women see an attractive man they fantasize about a relationship.”

“Time has a funny way of airbrushing relationships, removing all the things that were wrong so when you look back it looks much better than it really was.”

“Life doesn't hang around, it keeps moving and if you don't keep up you can lose things.”

“It was over before it had even begun”

“It's not getting what you want that's the hard part, it's deciding what you want.”

“Why is it that when you discover you can't have something, you want it even more?”

“consider the implications. We think we know what we want, but we can never really know until we've got it. And sometimes when we have, we discover we never really wanted it in the first place - but then it's too late”

“OK, I confess. I Googled him once. Maybe twice. Oh, all right, so I've lost count over the years. But so what? Who hasn't gone home and Googled a man they're in love with? Hang on - did I just say the L word?- Lucy”

“If the worst is going to happen, it'll happen. Worrying can't protect you from that. And if it doesn't happen then you've missed out on all the time that when you could have been having fun”

“If only men were like New York taxi-cabs and had a light that they can switch on when they're interested and off when they're not available. Then you'd know exactly where you were and you wouldn't have to worry about getting it wrong and being horribly embarrassed. --- Lucy”

“...we've told men for so long that we're equal, we can open our own doors, carry our own bags, pay our own way, that now they're afraid to offer in case we accuse them of sex discrimination. If you were a man would you buy a woman underwear? I wouldn't dare. What if she throws it back in your face and calls you a sexist pig? So they've tried to turn into new men, but that's no good either, because now we're telling them to be masculine. We don't just want them in a pair of Marigolds cleaning the oven, that's not good enough. We want them to take control, to whisk us off hotels, buy us dinner, and make mad passionate love to us all night. We want it all ways. We want them heroes and handy with the vacuum. No wonder the poor guys are confused”

“Scooping up the dress, I slip it over my head, and as it cascades to the floor. I suck my stomach for all I'm worth. Forget staying in with a good book. This Cinderella is going to the ball.”

“So, who is it?" Stella is persisting, somewhat suspiciously. "What's his name?"But if I don't tell her the truth, what do I say? My mind draws a blank. I don't want to lie to her- "um..." walking back to the bedroom, I notice the postcard Spike chose for me resting on my top of my dresser. I haven't written that one yet. Absently I pick it up and turn it over. On the back is written "Matthew Macfadyen as Fitzwilliam Darcy." "Fitzwilliam," I blurt. "No, what's his first name?" she asks. "That is his first name.”

“She watched him in the glow of the lamplight, his broad shoulders hunched over the piano, his hair flopping over his face, and knew she couldn't fight her feelings for him any longer. Denying him wasn't going to make them go away. And looking at him right at this moment, she didn't want them to.”

“And then, leaning slowly towards him, she did something she realised she'd been wanting to do for such a long time. She kissed him. For a second he hesitated, before letting himself fall with her, and, pulling her close, he wrapped his arms around her, pressing her to him. Breathing her in. His lips against hers. Tongue against tongue. Eyes closed. Hearts thudding. Deep, long, hungry kisses born out of the lack of any feelings of self-consciousness or embarrassment. Just two people wanting each other. Holding each other. Kissing the life out of each other. It had been a long time coming.”

“C'mon, you're gonna get upset sometimes. Breaking up is a shitty business. Someone always gets hurt. This time it happens to be you.”

“Life isn't complicated. It's very simple, really. It's us who make it complicated.”

“But I figure you're never too old to learn. That's when you become old, when you stop being fascinated by things, when you stop wanting to learn and explore ...”

“I never stopped joking around long enough to realize you weren't laughing anymore.”

“Juliet shook her head. The thought of eating anything made her feel nauseous. "No thanks, I'm not hungry.""Oh yeah, the heartbreak diet," nodded Trudy sagely. "Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.”

“They probably didn't care if it was the real thing or not. They wanted it to be. And by suspending their disbelief they could believe in the illusion.”

“Their eyes met. It had begun. They had begun.”

“...she'd been in a hermetically sealed bubble. A " couple bubble" that made the rest of the male species invisible.”

“For a split second they stared at each other. A fleeting, lasting moment. One person noticing another person out of a whole crowd of strangers.”

“I don't understand it myself, really. It's like the idea of him is better than the him of him”

“I was in love with the idea of him. An ideal of him. Of who I thought he was. Of who he used to be.”

“Because you will meet somebody more exceptional than anyone you have ever know. Who will love you warmly as possible. And who will so completely attract you that you will feel you never really loved before.”

“Too many people miss out on real love because they're too busy waiting for the ONE to show up”

“i thought love was about caring about someone day in and day out, about being there when it's fucking amazing, and still wanting to be there when it feels like crap. i thought it was about for ever' -will, calling romeo”

“so they've tried to turn into new men, but that's no good either, because now we're telling them to be masculine. we don't just want them in a pair of marigolds cleaning the oven, that's not good enough. we want them to take control, to whisk us off to hotels, buy us dinner, and make mad, passionate love to us all night. we want it all ways. women want to be feminists and romantics. we want them to be heroes and handy with the vacuum. no wonder the poor guys are confused' -trudy”

“I BELIEVE IN DESTINY, IN FATE, IN THE MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE.I BELIEVE WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER LOVE. EITHER IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN OR IT'S NOT..”

“Everyone dreams of finding their soulmate. It's a universal quest. All over the world millions of people are looking for their true love, their amore thier ame soeur, that one special person with whom they will spend the rest of their life.And I'm no different.Except it doesn't happen for everyone. Some people spend their whole life looking and never find that person. It's the luck of the draw.If, by some miracle, you're lucky enough to meet the ONE, whatever you do, don't let them go. Because you don't get another shot at it. Soulmates aren't like buses there's not going to be another one along in a minute. That's why they're called, "THE ONE".”

“Sounds incredible? Hell, it does. But perhaps we all need to believe something incredible once in a while.”

“And so taking the long way home through the market I slow my pace down. It doesn't come naturally. My legs are programmed to trot briskly and my arms to pump up and down like pistons, but I force myself to stroll past the stalls and pavement cafes. To enjoy just being somewhere, rather than rushing from somewhere, to somewhere. Inhaling deep lungfuls of air, instead of my usual shallow breaths. I take a moment to just stop and look around me. And smile to myself.For the first time in a long time, I can, quite literally, smell the coffee.”

“...when you decide you want to be with someone forever, you want forever to start right now.”