“It's all well and good saying you avoid pain by avoiding relationships, but what about the wonderful things you're avoiding as well? What about the joy and the intimacy and the trust that come with finding someone you love?”

“I cannot believe that I am actually excited at the sight of him. It has been long since anyone has made me feel THIS...and even though I know I've avoided THIS for fear of getting hurt, there's something about him that makes me want to trust him.”

“Once the intimacy has gone, however well you may get on, however friendly you may become, it is hard to believe it was ever there.”

“Loving she realises is a verb. It is an act. It is not enough to say you love someone, and then forget about them, or trust a relationship will stay strong simply because you share a house or children or a life.Loving requires acts of love. It requires thinking of your spouse, doing things for them to make them happy. It requires acting in loving ways, even when you are tired, or bogged down with work, or so stressed you are waking up every night with a jaw sore from grinding your teeth.They forgot to do that, she now knows. They forgot to love each other. They expected love to continue, without putting any work into it, and today she knows this is why her marriage failed.”

“But the thing is, since I've met someone, everyone started banging on and on about my not-so-secret admirer. I'd started to find it quite exciting. I'd forgotten that I don't get involved because the pain might not be worth it. All that flattery and attention distracted me from any pain that might have been lurking around the corner. But course, the pain got me in the end. It always does.”

“Avoidance is never the answer. Yes, life is all about pain and trouble and frustration and anger, but it's also about love and friendship and good days and sunshine. You can't have one without the other. If you avoid pain, you avoid living.”

“My conscious self would do anything to avoid people with cheating tendencies, but my subconscious keeps trying to recreate home and keeps bringing me back to people who recreate my childhood.”