- Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?
- In the course of my marriage, I've been selfish and stubborn and as ignorant as a goldfish, and it pains me to realize this about myself.
- Looking back, I believe that if I've done one thing right, it has been to love my wife throughout our years together. While this may strike some as a feat not worth mentioning, you should know that there was a time when I was certain that my wife didn't feel the same way about me.
- When two people live together, the stress flows both ways. This, I've come to believe, is both the blessing and the curse of marriage. It's a blessing because there's an outlet for the everyday strains of life; it's a curse because the outlet is someone you care deeply about.
- There were days when we avoided eye contact at the breakfast table, but still I never doubted us.
- It would be dishonest to say that I haven't wondered what would have happened if I married someone else, but in all the years we spent together, I never once regretted the fact that I had chosen her.
- ...and her face registered a disappointment that I had learned to recognize over the years, if not fully understand.
- Sitting beside her on the couch, I knew I loved her then as much as I did the day we were married. But in looking at her, noticing perhaps for the first time the distracted way she glanced off to the side and the unmistakably sad tilt of her head -- I suddenly realized that I wasn't quite sure whether she still loved me.
- At first, I wanted to believe that Jane was simply reacting emotionally and that I was reading far more into the incident than it deserved. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I sensed not only her displeasure in an absentminded spouse, but the traces of an older melancholy -- as if my lapse were simply the final blow in a long, long series of careless missteps.
- I sometimes think we're an unlikely pair to have spent a life together. We're different in almost every way, ant though opposites can and do attract, I've always felt that I made the better choice on our wedding day.
- I couldn't deny that we're drifting apart, and the more I thought about it, the more I noticed how wide the gap between us had become.
- It was as if we'd become strangers again. Only habit seemed to be keeping us together.
- What are we, after all, without our memories, without our dreams?
- Every time I read to her, it was like I was courting her, because sometimes, just sometimes, she would fall in love with me again, just like she had a long time ago. And that's the most wonderful feeling in the world. How many people are given that chance? To have someone you love fall in love with you over and over?
- I understand women... The point is that there's no man ever alive who can honestly say those words and mean them. It's just isn't possible, so there's no use trying. But that doesn't mean you can't love them anyway. And it doesn't mean that you should ever stop doing your best to let them know how important they are to you.
- I came to the conclusion that unrealized hopes, even small ones, were always wrenching.
- Marriage is about compromise; it's about doing something for the other person, even when you don't want to.
- It's funny, but have you ever noticed that the more special something is, the more people seem to take it for granted? It's like they think it won't ever change.
- All it ever needed was a little attention, and it would never have ended up like this in the first place.