A Writer's Dozen - Archive

12 Things About Love From the Movies. Or T.V. These days there's no difference.
By June First posted February 2007
Of course, in the movies there are as many takes on love as there are characters. For this list I tried to find quotes that actually discussed “love”: what it is, how it feels, what it does to us. When I had compiled twelve quotes I believed might be of benefit to writers of romance, I was amazed to find that the bulk of them came from men. But studies have shown that men are more romantic than women. They “fall in love more quickly than women and are more likely to endorse statements such as ‘True love lasts forever.’… Men are also more likely than women to report having experienced love at first sight”. – Aronson, Elliot, et al. (2005) Social Psychology. Who knew? Ever notice that the guy always has to risk his life and the woman is almost dead and he wakes her with a kiss, and they ride off together? It's a nice metaphor. It's death and resurrection. The illusion dies so that something deeper can take its place. Romance is a meditative state. It puts logic to sleep so that people can come together. Otherwise you guys probably wouldn't risk it. God to Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia Have you never met a woman who inspires you to love, until your every sense is filled with her? You inhale her. You test her. You see your unborn children in her eyes. And know that your heart has at last found a home. Your life begins with her, and without her, it must surely end. Johnny Depp, Don Juan DeMarco Why is it that we don’t always recognize the moment love begins? We always know when it ends. Steve Martin, LA Story It was only when I began to feel actual physical pain every time you left the room that it finally dawned on me: I was in love. John Malkovich to Michelle Pfeiffer, Dangerous Liaisons Can love really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn. Kate Winslet to Emma Thompson, Sense and Sensibility To give and not expect return—that is what lies at the heart of love. I fear, though, the notion is a stranger to us both. And yet, if we are honest, it is something we both long for, something that it takes great courage to do. Rupert Everett to Julianne Moore, An Ideal Husband If you’re with a woman and she doesn’t get it, she doesn’t get what you’re about, what’s in your guts––move on. John Spencer, Forget Paris What’s it like? You know how when you’re listening to music coming from another room, and you’re singing along because it’s a tune that you really love, when a door closes or a train passes so you can’t hear the music anymore, but you sing along anyway? Then no matter how much time passes, when you hear the music again, you’re still in exact same time with it. That’s what it’s like. Jude Law, Music From Another Room For me love has to go very deep. Sex only has to go a few inches. Stacey Nelkin, Bullets Over Broadway It was a million tiny little things that when you add them all up, it just meant that we were supposed to be together, and I knew it. I knew it the very first time that I touched her. It was like coming home. Only to no home I’d ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car, and I knew it. It was like magic. Tom Hanks, Sleepless in Seattle Love don’t make things nice. It ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us. We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. I mean the storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed. Nicolas Cage to Cher, Moonstruck Love is big. It's a bright light in the universe, and a bright light casts a big shadow. Real love is hard work. You have to decide if you want it in your story or if you'd rather just stay in the dream. God to Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia