Quotes from Alexandra Potter

She watched him in the glow of the lamplight, his broad shoulders hunched over the piano, his hair flopping over his face, and knew she couldn't fight her feelings for him any longer. Denying him wasn't going to make them go away. And looking at him right at this moment, she didn't want them to.

It's true what they say: life does go on and joy does return, and often it's in the most unexpected of places,' she continues, 'but you never get over losing someone; you just get better at coping with it.

I never know what I'm going to want to curl up in bed with." I shrug. "How about a man?" she retorts.

Maybe I just don't want another rejection," he shrugs. "I've had enough of that in my so-called acting career." Oh, so this is what it's all about. "But you're not auditioning for a role," I try to persuade him. "Aren't I?" he raises his eyebrows.

To you I shall say, as I have often said before, 'Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last '. — Jane Austen

so they've tried to turn into new men, but that's no good either, because now we're telling them to be masculine. we don't just want them in a pair of marigolds cleaning the oven, that's not good enough. we want them to take control, to whisk us off to hotels, buy us dinner, and make mad, passionate love to us all night. we want it all ways. women want to be feminists and romantics. we want them to be heroes and handy with the vacuum. no wonder the poor guys are confused' -trudy

listening can be more powerful than talking.

Some incredible bit of magic got into my corner of the universe, and i have to trust in the universe that it's happening for a reason

Men, Grace learned, seemed to think women were all frustrated nurses.

So what are you doing around here?" I ask, feeling all jittery, but this time it's in a good way. "Oh, I was just in the area." he says vaguely. "I thought I'd take Welly for a walk..." He trails off and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Those butterflies are going crazy in there.

It was the feeling she'd had when Sam had first kissed her in the pub. When he'd first put his lips against her. She didn't know if she'd imagined it or if it had just been the effects of the booze, but it had felt as if a thousand flash bulbs were going off in her brain. As if someone had turned on a very bright, very intense light. And she;d sure as hell never wanted to switch it off.

I always thought falling in love was hard, but now I realize that was the easy bit. It's staying in love that's the hard part.

Is that how you're supposed to find your soulmate and fall in love these days? By flirting in 140 character tweets and stalking each other's social media pages?

Embrace your sense of humour, don't ever take yourself too seriously, every day is another chance to laugh instead of cry, and when nothing is certain, everything is a hell of a lot less scary when you make fun of it. Amen.

That's when you become old, when you stop being fascinated by things, when you stop wanting to learn and explore.

Because feeling like a fuck-up isn't about being a failure, it's about being made to feel like one. It's the pressure and the panic to tick all the boxes and reach all the goals . . . and what happens when you don't. When you find yourself on the outside. Because on some level, in some aspect of your life, it's so easy to feel like you're failing when everyone around you appears to be succeeding.

I once read that life should not be about the number of breaths you take, but the number of moments that take your breath away.

I don't want to spend whatever time I have left looking backwards. I want to look forwards. To new things. New places. New adventures. Otherwise I'm just living a life where a part of me is missing.

Because sometimes happiness isn't a choice. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can't find joy. Which is why I've decided to stop beating myself up by desperately seeking happiness and give myself the permission to feel exactly how I feel, when I feel it. In fact, maybe, it's not happiness we should be looking for after all - but acceptance.

Ne smiješ željama profu?kati svoj život, Heather.

Because now there's two of us. And two of us makes a tribe.

Goodbye, Dr Goldstein.' I start to walk away, then stop and turn. 'Oh, and for the record my name's Charlotte.' And turning back, I keep on walking. Somehow I don't think that's a name he's going to forget in a hurry.

And suddenly it hits me. Our roles have completely reversed.It's no longer me giving my younger self advice; it's her giving me advice. And I'm fast realising that actually I don't know better at all. About some things, yes - I glance at that terrible silver eyeshadow - but not about everything, far from it.

If getting older has taught me one thing, it's that I feel so many conflicting things about so many different things, and to negate or stifle any of them doesn't make them go away. Emotions don't necessarily have a moral compass. Feelings can't be shamed into disappearing. Suppressing and ignoring them will only make them come back to bite you in the therapist's chair.