Quotes About Vulnerability

I can't imagine anyone ever wanting to be alone with me that much.

If Caroline was here, she'd give me her Patience, grasshopper speech. But she's not and I am left to wonder on my own: How does this work, the getting to know a new guy without revealing too much desperation for his undivided attention?

It is much harder to lie to someone's face. But. It is also much harder to tell the truth to someone's face.

I hope I never love someone so much that they could hurt me

I hope I never love someone so much that they could hurt me the way Langston was hurt, so wounded all he could do was cry and mope around the house and ask me to make him peanut butter and banana sandwiches with the crusts cut off, then play Boggle with him, which of course I always did, because I usually do whatever Langston wants me to do.

I've never kissed anyone for real, in a romantic way, before. I hadn't lied to the drag-on lady. I don't think my pillow counts. (Should I confess this to Snarl in the notebook? Full disclosure, so he had a fair chance to run? (Nah.)

I hope I never love someone so much that they could hurt me the way Langston was hurt.

Because I'm so tired of worshipping breakable things. Because I wanted to see the impulse through. Because I wanted to see the look on their faces. Because I wanted to do something that I've kept inside of me so they could see what's been inside me all this time.

The point is that I really don't want to break up with me. In fact, what I'd like is for us to do the opposite of break up with each other. Break into each other!Boomer offered. Both Lily and I shivered in horror at this wording. I figured that was a good sign.

and everything about me goes from crying out to just plain crying

And I've learned that letting people get close to you doesn't always lead to pain. Some people are actually worth a risk.

Falling in love should be the easiest thing in the world, but it's not.

It was scary to think of happily ever after. It was scary to think about trusting someone enough to give him your heart now, hoping he wouldn't break it later.

Lying had become her clothing—without it she'd freeze.

Truth-telling is a luxury for those whose lives aren't at risk.

Some women, Ester, like to believe their hearts are made of glass, which must shatter if they so much as think of a sin. Oh Ester, shatter

Yet a moment later she resumed walking with the air of someone too depleted for skepticism—her defeat displaced, unaccountably, by trust.

She'd spent the decades barricading herself from life, setting the conditions for love so high no one else could ever meet them.

Don't--she bit her lip and held it. Don't turn your back just because it terrifies you. [...] I don't think I'm strong enough, Aaron said. Slowly the steam faded from the pub's windows. Helen was staring across the street as well. She said, How do you think people get strong?

Wounding and healing are not opposites. They're part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people. It is our loneliness that helps us to to find other people or to even know they're alone with an illness. I think I have served people perfectly with parts of myself I used to be ashamed of.

And she'd felt an opening in her chest where she hadn't known anything was closed.

The terrible poetry of human nudity, I understand it at last, I who tremble for the first time in trying to read it with blasé eyes.

I am like a little child naked in a strong wind. I have a fever, I shiver, I'm too hot or too cold. My lips retain the unusual fruity taste of your mouth, & the bitter taste of your saliva lingers on my tongue, making me find everything I eat bland, sickening since nothing is as good as your love.

What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess- unless he is a coward.