I hate love

At the outset, let me set one thing clear. I'm not complaining, however harsh this might sound. It's just something I came across while I was searching for some quotes. And I simply, completely fell in love with the words. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever been able to capture a heartbreak so eloquently. There is so much honesty and deep-seated anguish in those words: "It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain."

I loved the way the writer has described the ease in which we fall in love. At times, with that which is not attainable. We know it, and still we go ahead full-steam, knowing fully well that there is nothing but hurt and a deadend waiting for us ahead.

But let me not keep you any more. All of you out there who have loved and lost, who have seen the cruel side of love, who have vowed never to fall again, this goes out to you. This goes out to you, my dear friend, who rages within.

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defences, you build up a whole suit of armour, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
Neil Gaiman: English born American Novelist, Journalist, Screenwriter, Children's Author, among many