Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Not in Love:
“Maybe people can be happy and sad. Maybe stories are messy and complicated. Maybe endings don’t always include solutions that tie everything together in a bow. But that doesn’t mean that they have to be tragedies.”
“And I’m going to—I’m going to want to see you every day. I’m going to learn more dishes and pack your lunch and write cute little notes on it. I’m going to ask you if you want to sleep at your place or mine and always assume that we’re spending the night together. I’m going to think about you all the damn time. I’m going to assume I’m watering your plants when you’re out of town. I’m going to hold your hand in public. I’m going to kiss you in public. I’m going to organize surprise parties for you with your friend. I’m going to send a hundred texts per day with stupid online shit I think you should see. Clingy as fuck, Rue. Can you do it? Can you live with me as your boyfriend?”
“And then, Rue, I met you. And you casually cracked my life into before and after you.”
“I want her to be all right more than I want to keep my dignity.”
“Is it true?” “According to my lawyer, yes.” “Who’s your lawyer?” “Google.”
“If you still want me to love you, I really think I can love you back. Because I already do.” Two tears streaked her cheekbones. “And if you don’t, I guess I’ll be loving you anyway.”
“Your damn mouth,” he murmured, “is the most obscenely lovely thing I’ve ever had the burden of seeing.”
“Out of all the people I’ve met, the things I’ve wanted, the places I’ve been, none has ever felt as necessary as you do. Because I love you. I love you in a way I didn’t think I was capable of. I love you because you showed me how to fall in love. And I don’t regret it, Rue. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Even if you can never say it back. Even if you never think about me again after today. Even if you were right after all, and you’re not capable of love.”
“I'd been an odd child, then an odd teenager. Then I'd become, maybe as a result, maybe unavoidably, an odd adult.”
“unsmiling men tended to be considered consummate professionals, while serious, unsmiling women were often written off as haughty shrews.”
“Do you think that maybe there’s another version of us, somewhere in another timeline? Where we’re not just a messed-up lump of scar tissue, and we’re whole enough to be capable of loving others the way they want to be loved?”
“I'd never felt more beautiful than when he looked at me. Like I was the final prototype of someone's entire fantasy life.”
“Eli was entranced. Her servant. Spellbound. He considered begging her to let him touch her.”
“Maya was sitting at the counter, frowning into her tablet at something that could have been a physics article or Wattpad fan fiction. She was that eclectic.”
“I think people are puzzled, and intimidated, and generally unsure of what to do with you.” “You are not unsure.” “No. Then again, I like you very much.”
“My very few friends were the best people I knew, and I was ready to cut a bitch.”
“He was her servant. Anything she wanted, Eli would do it. He had to slide his hands behind his back, trap them between himself and the wall, just to stop himself from touching and gripping and taking.”
“There was something uniquely good about being in her presence, and he could see himself doing things that ranged from embarrassing to reckless to illegal, just for five more minutes with her.” -Eli Killgore”
“If her heart has to be broken, I’d rather it be me. That way I can help her pick up the pieces.”
“I'm going to want to see you every day. I'm going to learn more dishes and pack your lunch and write cute little notes on it. I'm going to ask you if you want to sleep at your place or mine and always assume that were spending the night together. I'm going to think about you all the damn time. I'm going to assume I'm watering your plants when you're out of town.I'm going to hold your hand in public. I'm going to kiss you in public. I'm going to organize surprise parties for you with your friend. I'm going to send a hundred texts per day with stupid online shit I think you should see.”
“Maybe some people are meant to be tragedies.”
“She may have robbed him of his peace of mind, but he still wanted her to have hers. One more fault to add to the humbling business of falling in love, he supposed.”
“He turned away, chest heaving. “I’m sorry.” His Adam’s apple moved. “I forget to look at other things, when you’re around.” “I’m sure I do the same.” I feel it, too.”
“No one dies of a broken heart.”
“Eli was entranced. Her servant. Spellbound. He considered begging her to let him touch her. To let him go down on her in the hallway. He would go grocery shopping and make her dinner off a YouTube recipe of her choice. He'd wash her car, read her a book, sit here outside her door and just make sure she was safe and protected. They could hold hands all night. They could play Scrabble.”
“Whenever I’d imagined myself in a relationship, I’d envisioned an exhausting series of social niceties, facades to meticulously keep up, chitchat that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to produce even under duress.”
“A fair bit. We’re not Nolan Sawyer level, or anything—” “Mallory Greenleaf level, you mean?”
“I have Bruce.” “Bruce is a cat, Tish.”
“Rue laughed again, and had he ever yielded more power than right at this moment? Had anything felt better than making her smile wwhen she'd been crying only moments ago?”
“Rue. It’s humbling, how bad I want you.”
