Kat Hess

“Why is it the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? 'I love you' is always a quotation. You did not say it first and neither did I, yet when you say it and when I say we speak like savages who have found three words and worship them.
It's the cliches that cause the trouble. A precise emotion seeks a precise expression. If what I feel is not precise then should I call it love? It is so terrifying, love, that all I can do is shove it under a dump bin of pink cuddly toys and send myself a greetings card saying 'Congratulations on your engagement.' But I am not engaged I am deeply distracted. I am desperately looking the other way so that love won't see me. I want the diluted version, the happy language, the insignificant gestures. The saggy armchair of cliches. It's all right, millions of bottoms have sat here before me. The springs are well worn, the fabric smelly and familiar. I don't have to be frightened, look, my grandma and grandad did it, he in a stiff collar and club tie, she in white muslin straining a little at the life underneath. They did it, my parents did it, now I will do it won't I, arms outstretched, not to hold you, just to keep my balance, sleepwalking to that armchair. How happy we will be. How happy everyone will be. And they all lived happily ever after.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

“I love you."
"You've loved other people but you still left them."
"It's not that simple."
"I don't want to be another scalp on your pole.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

“People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

“I have come so far so fast that I haven't had time to ask whether or not this is where I want to be”
― Jeanette Winterson, Art and Lies