Cities, in many ways, are the best repositories for a love affair. You are in a forest or a cornfield, you are walking by the seashore, footprint after footprint of trodden sand, and somehow the kiss or the spoken covenant gets lost in the vastness and indifference of nature. In a city there are places to remind us of what has been.
Interpretation
Cities provide a backdrop that helps preserve memories of love, contrasting with the indifference of nature.
This quote by Edna O'Brien suggests that cities serve as living archives of love and romance. Unlike nature, which can often feel vast and indifferent, urban environments are filled with specific places that spark memories and emotions connected to past relationships, making them more meaningful and evocative reminders of love.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the significance of urban landscapes in romantic relationships.
Love . . . is like nature, but in reverse; first it fruits, then it flowers, then it seems to wither, then it goes deep, deep down into its burrow, where no one sees it, where it is lost from sight, and ultimately people die with that secret buried inside their souls.
That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.
Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment.
Oh, love, what an unreasoning creature it grew to be.
Recollection is not something that I can summon up, it simply comes and I am the servant of it.
It was the first time that I came face to face with madness and feared it and was fascinated by it.
So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do_x000D_ _x000D_ You see I've forgotten, if they're green or they're blue_x000D_ _x000D_ Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean_x000D_ _x000D_ Yours are the sweetest eyes, I've ever seen.
The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired.
You are one of my nicest thoughts.
love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit
Love yourself-accept yourself-forgive yourself-and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.
It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will choose a strong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. Strength demands intelligence, intelligence demands stimulation, and weakness is boring. It is better to find a partner you can contend with for a lifetime than one who accommodates you because he doesn't really care.
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