“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 defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, 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 simple a 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 -