Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?
Roland BarthesRead
Am I in love? --yes, since I am waiting. The other one never waits. Sometimes I want to play the part of the one who doesn't wait; I try to busy myself elsewhere, to arrive late; but I always lose at this game. Whatever I do, I find myself there, with nothing to do, punctual, even ahead of time. The lover's fatal identity is precisely this: I am the one who waits.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the experience of love as an act of waiting and emotional commitment.
In this quote, Roland Barthes explores the nature of love through the metaphor of waiting. He suggests that true love is characterized by a willingness to be patient, to endure longing, and to occupy a space of emotional readiness. The lover's identity is intertwined with their perpetual state of waiting for the beloved, indicating that love is not just about desire, but also about the deep connection and anticipation that accompanies it. Barthes acknowledges the struggle of trying to escape this role, yet he recognizes that no matter the distractions or attempts to avoid the emotional labor of waiting, the essence of love remains rooted in this anticipation.
Themes
LoveWaitingAnticipationEmotional CommitmentLonging
In practice
Example use cases
In a romantic context, one might use this quote while discussing the challenges of long-distance relationships.
More from Roland Barthes
All quotes →If I acknowledge my dependency, I do so because for me it is a means of signifying my demand: in the realm of love, futility is not a "weakness" or an "absurdity": it is a strong sign: the more futile, the more it signifies and the more it asserts itself as strength.)
Roland BarthesRead
The gesture of the amorous embrace seems to fulfill, for a time, the subject's dream of total union with the loved being: The longing for consummation with the other.
Roland BarthesRead
The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.
Roland BarthesRead
I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
Roland BarthesRead
All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know that they are agents of Death.
Roland BarthesRead
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