“Love is a popular romantic notion that leads to nothing but its own brand of misery.”

“You have not traveled enough," she said. "Or you'd know that every journeymakes its own map across your heart.”

“Everybody's afraid of love, because love is what hurts the most.”

“It is very easy to shun someone who is deliberately cruel, and everyone loathes a man who is brutal and vicious. Such people have a hard time winning followers. But an individual who is gracious, who is attractive, who smiles and flatters and praises - that is a person who can lead whole nations to disaster. Who would not want to follow such a man or woman? Everyone is drawn to beauty and wit.”

“Do you love me?" he asked.I fell silent."For the rest of it is glitter and noise," he said. "At the heart of it all is love. You make that choice, and you go forward from there.”

“My shoes made an odd, clacking sound on the cobblestones of the courtyard, no matter how quietly I placed my feet. It was like being followed by the audible manifestation of my own shadow.”

“My love for you is elemental and immutable, and it will sustain me until I die.”