Deb Caletti

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”

“This is what I know. Don't settle for 40, 50, or even 80 percent. A relationship-it shouldn't be too small or too tight or even a little scratchy. It shouldn't take up space in your closet o...”

“You've got to have someone who loves your body. Who doesn't define you, but sees you. Who loves what he sees. Who you don't have to struggle to be good enough for.”

“It's good to let God pick a man for you. We don't do so well when we pick them ourselves. They end up lipsticks in a drawer, all those wrong colors you thought looked so good in the package.”

“Sometimes love is a surprise, an instant of recognition, a sudden gift at a sudden moment that makes everything different from then on. Some people will say that's not love, that you can't r...”

“When what you want is a relationship, and not a person, get a dog.”

“I shouldn't have to be a liar to make someone love me. I shouldn't be so afraid of losing someone that I'll do anything to make them stay.”

“It took me years to figure out that upset was upset, and tumultuousness was not the same thing as passion. Love isn't drama.”

“The most basic and somehow forgettable thing is this: Love is not pain. Love is goodness. And real love--it's less shiny than solid and simple.”

“I had always had a little problem looking out for myself in love. I was afraid people would leave me. So I sort of clung and did everything possible to keep someone around. I didn't have a h...”

“Maybe it was wrong, or maybe impossible, but I wanted the truth to be one thing. One solid thing.”

“Truth was funny, because it was an insistent thing, maybe as powerful and insistent as some force of nature, the push of water or wind. You could keep it out only so long, but it had its own...”

“I could forget that part, but it had to have been true.”

“Sometimes you can cattle rope your heart and sometimes you can't, is all.”

“They say religion is about love, but you wonder how much of it really is about fear.”

“but truthfully, a kiss needs something more important than curiosity. A kiss needs desire. A kiss should rocket past the excitement level of eating lettuce.”

“I've heard that people stand in bad situations because a relationship like that gets turned up by degrees. It is said that a frog will jump out of a pot of boiling water. Place him in a pot...”

“We look down our noses at people who've made mistakes in relationships. She's so stupid! How could she do that! Our superiority makes us feel better. But I’d bet everything I have on the fac...”

“So I put up with bad behavior in the name of loving the way I thought you were supposed to love.”

“A relationship could be a place to hide too.”