Eva Heller

“There's no point in clinging to illusions.”

“It's always hard when you've known a person a long time and then you have to recognise that you have nothing left in common but your memories.”

“Outside the seasons passed: sun, snow, spring green, October storms . . . was this a vision of my future? When would the shunning hero come, to set the clock if my life in motion again? Would he come some morning, or in the night? In April or December? This year? Next year? I shuddered. No, I wouldn't just sit and wait. I wanted to go out. Maybe there were new men out there, better men, men who'd just been waiting for me. Somewhere someone is always waiting for someone.”

“We don't have anything in common. We just complement each other. You don't have to do everything together; you need some distance between you. But there's no ideal distance and there are only two possibilities: either you reduce the distance or you enlarge it. And because we want to reduce the distance, we're going to get married. Some time or another.”

“I think it's better if you rely on the fact you belong together, instead of having to reinvent your togetherness every day. People who say right off the bat that they don't want to take risks because their relationship is going to dissolve anyway - well, you might just as well split up right away. Why wait?”

“we wish you everything you wish yourself' Jurgen said.'What do you wish yourself?' Birgit asked.I felt silly 'I don't really have any specific wishes''a new old man perhaps?' Juliet said playfully'but please, not just any old man!' I said.'of course not just any old man! The man with whom it'll all be different.”

“Our relationship had been intended as an interlude. And it had become an interlude. My expectations had been fulfilled. Anyone who expected anything more would have been wallowing in illusions.”

“Maybe she'd ended up going to Ireland because whilst visiting her father she'd bumped into an old love from her youth, perhaps even her ex? Such spontaneous acts really only worked with men left over from earlier in your life.”

“Don't claim you're sincere, just be it.”

“Sexual frustration' - it always sounds like the only frustrated ones are the ones who don't do it. What a laugh. The frustrated ones are the ones who do do it! The ones who don't can at least preserve some illusions.”

“Was my life going to go on like this forever, totally uneventful? Alternating between unfulfilled expectations and expected disappointments?”

“He's like a child, but without a child's capacity for joy.”

“He's alone, You're alone, that's more than enough to have in common. What else do you want?”