“I hate it when people talk like friendship is less than other kinds of - as though it s some kind of runner-up prize for people who can t have sex.”
“You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip. You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip. You’ve never turned the wrong to right. You’ve been a coward in the fight.”
“I’m thinking it would be very easy to love you. And easier to call you my friend.”
“...the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time.”
“All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way—if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.”
“Nearly everything I know about love, I ve learnt from my long-term friendships with women.”
“Star friendship.— We were friends and have become estranged. But this was right, and we do not want to conceal and obscure it from ourselves as if we had reason to feel ashamed. We are two ships each of which has its goal and course; our paths may cross and we may celebrate a feast together, as we did—and then the good ships rested so quietly in one harbor and one sunshine that it may have looked as if they had reached their goal and as if they had one goal. But then the almighty force of our tasks drove us apart again into different seas and sunny zones, and perhaps we shall never see one another again,—perhaps we shall meet again but fail to recognize each other: our exposure to different seas and suns has changed us! That we have to become estranged is the law above us: by the same token we should also become more venerable for each other! And thus the memory of our former friendship should become more sacred! There is probably a tremendous but invisible stellar orbit in which our very different ways and goals may be included as small parts of this path,—let us rise up to this thought! But our life is too short and our power of vision too small for us to be more than friends in the sense of this sublime possibility.— Let us then believe in our star friendship even if we should be compelled to be earth enemies.”
“I m not good at having friends. I mean, I can make myself useful to people. I can fit in. I get invited to parties and I can sit at any table I want in the cafeteria. But actually trusting someone when they have nothing to gain from me just doesn t make sense. All friendships are negotiations of power.”
“Because that’s intimacy, Buckaroos. Somebody who understands exactly how weird you are, and you understand exactly how weird they are, and you’re in a sort of mutually beneficial hostage situation.”
“Shall we start over? I say. Juliet shrugs. No. This has been an important part of our friendship development.”
“My darling, I m waiting for you — how long is a day in the dark, or a week? The fire is gone now, and I m horribly cold. I really ought to drag myself outside but then there would be the sun. . . I m afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words. We die, we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave. We are the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you will come and carry me out into the palace of winds. That s all I ve wanted — to walk in such a place with you, with friends, on earth without maps...”
“How right it had felt at each moment he had met them all. How certain that they plunged towards something bigger than even this moment.”
“I don’t have many friends,” I said. “Not ‘come over and eat popcorn and watch a stupid movie’ friends. You and Warren are sort of it.” I don t have many girlfriends. My work isn t conducive to meeting other women. “Pretty sad,” Kyle commented. Then he said, “You and Warren are the only people I eat popcorn with, too.”
“Live in the present. Take care of the relationships in front of you now. Most friendships have a natural life, and when they ve lived that out, you ll know.”
“Sesekali, minta tolong nggak ada salahnya, kan?... Lagian itu bikin kamu kelihatan lebih manusiawai.”
“Friends show their true colors in times of need; and not in times of happiness.”
“My fear of being real, of being seen, paralyzes me into silence. I crave the touch and the connection, but I’m not always brave enough to open my hand and reach out. This is the great challenge: to be seen, accepted, and loved, I must first reveal, offer, and surrender.”