"When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It errupts like an earthquake and then subsides.
And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have
become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness, it is not the excitement, nor the desire to mate every second of the day.
It is not laying awake in the night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No.. don't blush.
I'm telling you some truths. That is just "being in love" which any of us can convince ourselves that we are.

Love itself is what is left over when "being in love" has burned itself away, and this is both an art and a
fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground,
and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches, we found that we were one tree and not two.."

"Corelli's Mandolin", by Louis de Bernieres