QUOTES ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
Quotes about relationships capture the complexity of connection, love, and understanding between people. They reflect both the beauty and the challenges that come with sharing our lives with others. The following collection offers insights that may resonate, comfort, or inspire reflection on the bonds we form. Select Another Topic
Barbie”
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
- Louis Yako
I'm broke and I need to fly to Paris."
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
- Grant Ginder
Let's Not Do That Again
I am vaguely aware that Cain has not returned my call, but maybe it's absurd to expect a call to thank me for calling to thank him. Where would it end?
- Sulari Gentill
The Woman in the Library
To even talk about not having a partner makes the story about me not having a partner. What is actually happening in the ecosystem of my spiritual life and my physical life and my emotional life is that a garden is blooming. . . . It isn’t about who isn’t here. It is about what is here.
You will not move on by missing them, but by forgetting them.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Curious how a man often calendared his glory and grief with a woman for asterisk.
- Wilfrido D. Nolledo
But for the Lovers
I hadn't driven my mother since I was fifteen and learning how to drive. Back then she was so nervous, constantly convinced I was veering over the line on her side. The two of us would screech at each other, exacerbating the situation, arguing over trivial things like how soon to utilize to turn signal and which route to take through town.
- Michelle Zauner
Crying in H Mart
Disappointment is a powerful thing. Used correctly, it is stronger than fear, more terrible than physical pain, if you see it in the eyes of the one you love, you'll do almost anything to make it stop.
- Fredrik Backman
My Friends
My stomach rumbles. I need to eat something before I pass out. Summoning the last of my energy, I straighten and slop the tuna-tomato mix onto plates. Gordon Ramsay would have a fit -- it looks like dog food -- but I don't think anyone here will care.
- Allie Reynolds
Shiver
The problem is that the spoiling of men is continued by marital expectation. Even in the most unconventional of set-ups, the free-thinking liberal man expects his woman to be at home serving his emotional needs when she may prefer to be free to do other things.
- Paloma Faith
MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery
Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one's boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship: try as we might, we cannot reconstitute ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us.
- Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
You don’t move on by forgetting them. You move on by remembering who you used to be.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
If all those things -- trust, respect, etiquette -- stop functioning, the rules clash and the game breaks down.
- Haruki Murakami
Killing Commendatore
It's hard to find real people; there are too many actors and actresses.
- John C. Okoro
I don't think your father's a buffoon. Maybe you're projecting."
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
- Regina Porter
The Rich People Have Gone Away
You don’t need to be perfect to be held. Just willing.
- Andrew Browski
Hold Me Differently: For Him and For Her — When Love Needs a New Language
We never get love by begging for it. We only get humiliation.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Staying stuck with an unhappy person will not make them happy. It just makes two unhappy people instead of one.
- Pamela Storch
...people are on the verge of death in that church, Eloise. Have you been there? Have you felt how hot it is? Hell is cooler than that church is today.
- Grant Ginder
The People We Hate at the Wedding
The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.
- Emily Gregory
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
At some point, every man she dated looked at her like this; eventually, by being herself, she spooked them all.
- Curtis Sittenfeld
Show Don't Tell
If I provide caretaking and feel cared for by a network of people whom I may be tied to by passions and attachments that may be different, with different ingredients: more or less intimacy, attention, shared life, and so on, then I will not experience interest in a new affection from a place of lack, I won’t cling to a sinking ship, I will savor and appreciate the good in people without feeling the anxiety that it could end at any moment. In that ideal situation, I will give away my engagement and my help, and I won’t put conditions on them because I know I won’t need compensation; perhaps returns won’t come from the same place where I put energy in, but from others. But that will end up supporting us collectively because we will be a network.
- Juan Carlos Pérez Cortés
Anarquía Relacional: La revolución desde los vínculos
But beneath that weight lay us, [...] the lines that connected a woman named Rachel to a man named Wick. There was a secret shape to it all that lived inside us, a map that slowly circled within our minds like a personal cosmology.
- Jeff VanderMeer
Borne
Son,
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
- Gift Gugu Mona
Dear Son: An Imaginary Letter from a Loving Dad
Barbie”
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
- Louis Yako
I'm broke and I need to fly to Paris."
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
- Grant Ginder
Let's Not Do That Again
I am vaguely aware that Cain has not returned my call, but maybe it's absurd to expect a call to thank me for calling to thank him. Where would it end?
- Sulari Gentill
The Woman in the Library
To even talk about not having a partner makes the story about me not having a partner. What is actually happening in the ecosystem of my spiritual life and my physical life and my emotional life is that a garden is blooming. . . . It isn’t about who isn’t here. It is about what is here.
You will not move on by missing them, but by forgetting them.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Curious how a man often calendared his glory and grief with a woman for asterisk.
- Wilfrido D. Nolledo
But for the Lovers
I hadn't driven my mother since I was fifteen and learning how to drive. Back then she was so nervous, constantly convinced I was veering over the line on her side. The two of us would screech at each other, exacerbating the situation, arguing over trivial things like how soon to utilize to turn signal and which route to take through town.
- Michelle Zauner
Crying in H Mart
Disappointment is a powerful thing. Used correctly, it is stronger than fear, more terrible than physical pain, if you see it in the eyes of the one you love, you'll do almost anything to make it stop.
- Fredrik Backman
My Friends
My stomach rumbles. I need to eat something before I pass out. Summoning the last of my energy, I straighten and slop the tuna-tomato mix onto plates. Gordon Ramsay would have a fit -- it looks like dog food -- but I don't think anyone here will care.
- Allie Reynolds
Shiver
The problem is that the spoiling of men is continued by marital expectation. Even in the most unconventional of set-ups, the free-thinking liberal man expects his woman to be at home serving his emotional needs when she may prefer to be free to do other things.
- Paloma Faith
MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery
Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one's boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship: try as we might, we cannot reconstitute ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us.
- Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
You don’t move on by forgetting them. You move on by remembering who you used to be.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
If all those things -- trust, respect, etiquette -- stop functioning, the rules clash and the game breaks down.
- Haruki Murakami
Killing Commendatore
It's hard to find real people; there are too many actors and actresses.
- John C. Okoro
I don't think your father's a buffoon. Maybe you're projecting."
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
- Regina Porter
The Rich People Have Gone Away
You don’t need to be perfect to be held. Just willing.
- Andrew Browski
Hold Me Differently: For Him and For Her — When Love Needs a New Language
We never get love by begging for it. We only get humiliation.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Staying stuck with an unhappy person will not make them happy. It just makes two unhappy people instead of one.
- Pamela Storch
...people are on the verge of death in that church, Eloise. Have you been there? Have you felt how hot it is? Hell is cooler than that church is today.
- Grant Ginder
The People We Hate at the Wedding
The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.
- Emily Gregory
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
At some point, every man she dated looked at her like this; eventually, by being herself, she spooked them all.
- Curtis Sittenfeld
Show Don't Tell
If I provide caretaking and feel cared for by a network of people whom I may be tied to by passions and attachments that may be different, with different ingredients: more or less intimacy, attention, shared life, and so on, then I will not experience interest in a new affection from a place of lack, I won’t cling to a sinking ship, I will savor and appreciate the good in people without feeling the anxiety that it could end at any moment. In that ideal situation, I will give away my engagement and my help, and I won’t put conditions on them because I know I won’t need compensation; perhaps returns won’t come from the same place where I put energy in, but from others. But that will end up supporting us collectively because we will be a network.
- Juan Carlos Pérez Cortés
Anarquía Relacional: La revolución desde los vínculos
But beneath that weight lay us, [...] the lines that connected a woman named Rachel to a man named Wick. There was a secret shape to it all that lived inside us, a map that slowly circled within our minds like a personal cosmology.
- Jeff VanderMeer
Borne
Son,
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
- Gift Gugu Mona
Dear Son: An Imaginary Letter from a Loving Dad
Barbie”
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
Through my many long travels I’ve seen women reading books on planes, buses, and trains…
Over the years, three titles caught my eye, each in the hands of women who looked—or tried to look—like the Barbie doll.
I don’t recall the exact names, but one was along the lines of ‘How to Keep Your Husband’ or ‘How to Preserve Your Marriage.’
The second warned of ‘Signs He’s Cheating on You,’
and the third promised how to get rid of him—and move on.
It felt as if these three titles mapped out the lifecycle of every woman who lets herself play Barbie.
And I often wonder: wouldn’t reading ‘How to Stop Playing the Barbie Role in Love and Life’ be enough to solve all the problems those books claim to fix?
[Original poem published
- Louis Yako
I'm broke and I need to fly to Paris."
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
"And why do you need to go to Paris?"
"Because there's a man there who loves me and who can help me ruin my mother's life."
Dipping her spoon into her bowl, my grandmother nodded, sipped some soup, and -- I think -- smiled.
"My purse is in the ktchen," she said, "go write yourself a check.
- Grant Ginder
Let's Not Do That Again
I am vaguely aware that Cain has not returned my call, but maybe it's absurd to expect a call to thank me for calling to thank him. Where would it end?
- Sulari Gentill
The Woman in the Library
To even talk about not having a partner makes the story about me not having a partner. What is actually happening in the ecosystem of my spiritual life and my physical life and my emotional life is that a garden is blooming. . . . It isn’t about who isn’t here. It is about what is here.
You will not move on by missing them, but by forgetting them.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Curious how a man often calendared his glory and grief with a woman for asterisk.
- Wilfrido D. Nolledo
But for the Lovers
I hadn't driven my mother since I was fifteen and learning how to drive. Back then she was so nervous, constantly convinced I was veering over the line on her side. The two of us would screech at each other, exacerbating the situation, arguing over trivial things like how soon to utilize to turn signal and which route to take through town.
- Michelle Zauner
Crying in H Mart
Disappointment is a powerful thing. Used correctly, it is stronger than fear, more terrible than physical pain, if you see it in the eyes of the one you love, you'll do almost anything to make it stop.
- Fredrik Backman
My Friends
My stomach rumbles. I need to eat something before I pass out. Summoning the last of my energy, I straighten and slop the tuna-tomato mix onto plates. Gordon Ramsay would have a fit -- it looks like dog food -- but I don't think anyone here will care.
- Allie Reynolds
Shiver
The problem is that the spoiling of men is continued by marital expectation. Even in the most unconventional of set-ups, the free-thinking liberal man expects his woman to be at home serving his emotional needs when she may prefer to be free to do other things.
- Paloma Faith
MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery
Such journeys have convinced me that it is not always possible to restore one's boundaries after they have been blurred and made permeable by a relationship: try as we might, we cannot reconstitute ourselves as the autonomous beings we previously imagined ourselves to be. Something of us is now outside, and something of the outside is now within us.
- Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
You don’t move on by forgetting them. You move on by remembering who you used to be.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
If all those things -- trust, respect, etiquette -- stop functioning, the rules clash and the game breaks down.
- Haruki Murakami
Killing Commendatore
It's hard to find real people; there are too many actors and actresses.
- John C. Okoro
I don't think your father's a buffoon. Maybe you're projecting."
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
Theo looks at his chopsticks. When he was younger, he would have poked her in the eye by now.
- Regina Porter
The Rich People Have Gone Away
You don’t need to be perfect to be held. Just willing.
- Andrew Browski
Hold Me Differently: For Him and For Her — When Love Needs a New Language
We never get love by begging for it. We only get humiliation.
- Garima Soni
Life Simplified: Quote - Unquote
Staying stuck with an unhappy person will not make them happy. It just makes two unhappy people instead of one.
- Pamela Storch
...people are on the verge of death in that church, Eloise. Have you been there? Have you felt how hot it is? Hell is cooler than that church is today.
- Grant Ginder
The People We Hate at the Wedding
The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.
- Emily Gregory
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
At some point, every man she dated looked at her like this; eventually, by being herself, she spooked them all.
- Curtis Sittenfeld
Show Don't Tell
If I provide caretaking and feel cared for by a network of people whom I may be tied to by passions and attachments that may be different, with different ingredients: more or less intimacy, attention, shared life, and so on, then I will not experience interest in a new affection from a place of lack, I won’t cling to a sinking ship, I will savor and appreciate the good in people without feeling the anxiety that it could end at any moment. In that ideal situation, I will give away my engagement and my help, and I won’t put conditions on them because I know I won’t need compensation; perhaps returns won’t come from the same place where I put energy in, but from others. But that will end up supporting us collectively because we will be a network.
- Juan Carlos Pérez Cortés
Anarquía Relacional: La revolución desde los vínculos
But beneath that weight lay us, [...] the lines that connected a woman named Rachel to a man named Wick. There was a secret shape to it all that lived inside us, a map that slowly circled within our minds like a personal cosmology.
- Jeff VanderMeer
Borne
Son,
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
A great relationship does not have to be new or old to function effectively. It just needs two people who are committed to seeing it to fruition.
- Gift Gugu Mona
Dear Son: An Imaginary Letter from a Loving Dad