Marisa de los Santos

“I think love is an imperative. It obligates you.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Like love was a habit you couldn't break.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“I have lost things I will never stop missing.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“It's ok to feel happy, right? She hoped he'd know what she meant.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“I think there are certain people who change the way time moves.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“All is one and all is different.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“In my experience, people love what they love. They just do.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“It just seems like we --human beings -- know so much, but it's nothing compared to what we don't know.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Not tailgating acknowledges the mystery and humanity of strangers. It's one of those small habits that speaks volumes.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“I know how syrupy this sounds, how dull, provincial, and possibly whitewashed, but what can I do? Happy childhoods happen”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Maybe she would remember who he was, and maybe she would come back.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Soon, the two of them would leave this spot. . . walk into the house and into a whole changed world. . . ”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Since you left there's been a you-shaped space beside me, all the time. It never goes away.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“I stand here on this spring day in the center of my life. Chaos, din, and beauty. For a moment, I am…

— Marisa de los Santos

“A real life doesn't mean getting what you want; the achievement, the privilege, too is knowing what you love.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“When he looked up, he said, "Clare told me about Christmas." And I swear the boy's face began to shine. I recognized…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Whatever word you use to describe diving into the deepest part of a human. Take your pick; they're all woefully inadequate, but…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Inside plum trees stood in a row, flowers lifted their pale throats to the moon and stars, a magnolia held its tight-closed…

— Marisa de los Santos

“I spoke, I listened, and my heart broke, which is to say that it didn't break at all but became suddenly aware…

— Marisa de los Santos

“If I were to ever have a full-fledged vocation, as opposed to a half-assed avocation, I needed to love it and, in…

— Marisa de los Santos

“When it comes to Clare, sometimes, the past isn't past. The past can get as present as any present ever was, so…

— Marisa de los Santos

“I've always found allegories kind of comforting. When you encounter people named Liar and Abstinence, you might not be crazy about them,…

— Marisa de los Santos

“But every time, what brought me to my senses was my conviction that before a person dropped a new life into this…

— Marisa de los Santos

“As Will stood watching Pen, just before he turned away, his initial astonishment shifted into something quieter. Soon, she will see me;…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Pen realized it: Sometimes there is nothing to do but surrender yourself to wonder... You must stop measuring - over and over…

— Marisa de los Santos

“No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Chicken Soup for the Soul". You've heard of these books, am I right? We've all heard of them. But I wonder if…

— Marisa de los Santos

“He wasn’t looking at her, was at such an oblique angle to her that his face was little more than a sliver,…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Instead, she sat there, smiling that small, small inscrutable smile, like Mona Lisa herself, although I must say that until that moment,…

— Marisa de los Santos

“All those films in which the woman doesn't get her man, those films of yearning unsatisfied, hearts unappeased. You like them; I've…

— Marisa de los Santos

“The sight made her ache. How can I not touch you? she thought hopelessly, and then she was doing it, her fingers…

— Marisa de los Santos

“I was there to get a Ph.D. in English literature. That's not true. I was there to read a lot of books…

— Marisa de los Santos

“But I've always been a sucker for externals alone: the shape, the shine, what the surface suggests to my palm. So mechanically…

— Marisa de los Santos

“Its hard to say what was happening inside her head. Her brain doesn't function quite like most people's to begin with and…

— Marisa de los Santos

“It was the first time! Just because there weren’t fireworks the first time doesn’t mean there will never be fireworks. We’re human;…

— Marisa de los Santos

“When you say those wedding vows at eighteen, you are committing yourselves—with all that you are and all that you have—to only…

— Marisa de los Santos

“In my experience, people love what they love. They just do. Or fail to love what they fail to love.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“But you're wrong. Happiness is EARNED, like everything else. It's achieved.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“It's a well-known fact. All women are clinically insane, but especially ballet dancers. Psycho. extremely psycho. Trust me.”

— Marisa de los Santos

“Conversationally, we were Fred and Ginger -- spin, slide, shuffle, bend.”

— Marisa De Los Santos