Unequal Affections Quotes

“Although he doesn't know it yet, she isn't his real life. But he is hers.

This is painful.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride

“Unrequited love: there's no such thing.
If it is unrequited it isn't love, it's expectation [that they should treat you in a certain way].

It's not allowing the relationship to be what it is.
It's not accepting the love in the form in which it actually comes in that relationship as being real enough, as being good enough.

That's the only thing that creates the idea of "unrequited" is you're not really paying attention to what it is, you're only paying attention to what you expect it to be.

[For the person experiencing unrequited love;] the real unrequited love is that they're not loving themselves as much as they could. That's what's unrequited, and they're simply getting a reflection of that.”
― Bashar

“He can do anything he likes and I'm so lonely, oh so lonely— And I put up with it because there was nothing else to do—”
― Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

“On the other hand, she happily kept him informed about plans she had with other people, providing a steady flow of information about excursions that were about to happen, details of dates or parties that were always this close to coming together. As long as he listened, without complaint, to an endless description of activities that were supposed to happen without him, there was a 30 percent chance, at least, that Anna would change her mind at the last minute, claim to be unable to handle the unbearable burden of whatever her social plans were supposed to be, and decide to hang out with him instead. She'd arrive at his house and collapse in exaggerated relief: "I am so glad we're doing this, I was so not in the mood for another party at Maria's." As though they were both equally at the mercy of circumstance, similarly oblivious to the power dynamic that governed their "friendship.”
― Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This

“At the midnight of our trouble,
there are signs in the moon and in the stars.
He will not say that he belongs to me,
and still I bend to wash his feet.”
― Jill Alexander Essbaum, Heaven

“But no, now I see I never meant to Ben what Ben meant to me. If there was anything I said which resonated in return, he found a better speech elsewhere. My romance went no further than his coat.”
― Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking

“Did he even exist in her mind, as a living, breathing, thinking person? He spent so much time trying to figure out what she was thinking, but what kind of a consciousness did she imagine lived behind the mask of his face?”
― Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This

“You are the kind of thing who takes from me
And never gives anything away

And when you call to me with your synchronicity
I can't help but run to you

You my horrible star
I can't help but run to you when you call for me”
― Dorothea Lasky, Rome: Poems

“Find someone who loves you more than you love them.”
― Hannah Lillith Assadi, Sonora

“But he still wished Anna would do something to reassure him—ideally burst into tears and say, You were always there for me, always, and plead with him to forgive her for all her years of neglect—but he'd have settled for even a hint that she intended to make an active effort to meet up.”
― Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This