Marian Keyes

...as you know, I don't believe in fear, just an invention by men so they get all the money and good jobs...

The feel of them (books) and the smell of them. A bookshop was like an Aladdin's cave for me. Entire worlds and lives can be found just behind that glossy cover. All you had to do was look." Claire (Watermelon)

They say the path of true love never runs smooth. Well, Luke and my true love's path didn't run at all, it limped along in new boots that were chafing its heels. Blistered and cut, red and raw, every hopping, lopsided step, a little slice of agony.

When I opened my case in the hotel, he gestured excitedly at my snakeskin sandals, turquoise suede wedges and silver-speckled jellies. __ut you__e loads of shoes,_ he bellowed joyfully. I shook my head sadly. Men just don__ get it, do they? They__e definitely missing the shoe chromosome.

Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted makeup.Forget the laughs, forget the fights, forget the sex, forget the jealousy. But take off your hat and observe a moment's silence for the legions of unknown tubes of foundation, mascara, eyeliner, blusher and lipstick who died that it might all have been possible. But who died in vain.

Relationship gurus always said that an attraction based on friendship and mutual respect was far more likely to stay the course - and the bastards were right.

Devereaux is going with our pitch.___ey, that__ just great,_ I said superperkily. __endell__ or mine?___ours.___ut you want to fire me. So fire me.___e can__ fire you. They loved you. The head guy, Leonard Daly, thought you were, I quote, __great kid, very courageous_ and a natural to do a whispering campaign. He said you hadbelievability.___hat__ too bad.___hy? You__e not quitting!__ thought about it. __ot if you don__ want me to. Do you?__o on, say it.298 _elavanilla__o.___o what?___o, we don__ want you to quit.___en grand more, two assistants, and charcoal suits. Take it or leave it.__riella swallowed. __kay to the money, okay to the assistants, but I can__ green-light charcoalsuits. Formula Twelve is Brazilian, we need carnival colors.___harcoal suits or I__ gone.___range.___harcoal.___range.___harcoal.___kay, charcoal.__t was an interesting lesson in power. The only time you truly have it is when you genuinelydon__ care whether you have it or not.__ight,_ I said. ____ giving myself the rest of the day off.

Some think love can be measured by the amount of butterflies in their tummy. Others think love can be measured in bunches of flowers, or by using the words 'for ever.' But love can only truly be measured by actions. It can be a small thing, such as peeling an orange for a person you love because you know they don't like doing it.

I've been so showered in life, beyond my wildest dreams, such as having a loving partner I never thought I'd have.

Regardless of the gender of the highest wage earner, the balance of power in the relationship will suffer if the higher earner uses control of the purse strings as a system of reward and punishment. It will also suffer if the lower earner takes a chippy, haughty attitude to spending money they haven't actually generated themselves.

It was ironic, really - you want to die because you can't be bothered to go on living - but then you're expected to get all energetic and move furniture and stand on chairs and hoist ropes and do complicated knots and attach things to other things and kick stools from under you and mess around with hot baths and razor blades and extension cords and electrical appliances and weedkiller. Suicide was a complicated, demanding business, often involving visits to hardware shops.And if you've managed to drag yourself from the bed and go down the road to the garden center or the drug store, by then the worst is over. At that point you might as well just go to work.

In the same way that the stewards on the Titanic were more concerned about the unemptied ashtrays on the bar than the enormous hole in the side of the ship which was letting in zillions of gallons of water, I too was worrying about the unimportant and ignoring the vital. Sometimes it's easier that way. Because although there was little I could do about the huge hole, it was within my power to empty an asthray.

I should have learned mindfulness, and it__ too late now because it__ no good learning it when you__e already in crisis: you have to start when things are good. But only the very, very oddest would think, Hey, my life is perfect. I know! I__l sit and waste twenty minutes Observing My Thoughts without Judgement.

No one knows how strong they are until they have to be.

Because you promised? But you've promised me load of things. Like to cherish me and to love till death do us part.

If it was that beautiful, why did I leave you

Don't make the mistake of letting pride get in the way of forgiveness. You still love him. He still loves you. Don't throw it all away just because your feelings are hurt.

He's a waiter, not a Mafia stooge, so what's he going to do? Blac pepper them to death? Compliment them into a coma? Run them over with the dessert trolley?