Intimacy

A man is getting ready to leave his wife and children. It begins like this:

"It is the saddest night, for I am leaving and not coming back."

Page 4:

"Soon we will be strangers. No, we can never be that. Hurting someone is an act of reluctant intimacy."

Page 80:

"It is my yearning for more life that has done this, and we are yearning creatures, a bag of insistent wants."

Page 94:

"No wonder everyone wants it [love] - as if they have known such love before and can barely remember it, yet are compelled ever after to seek it as the single thing worth living for. Without love, most of life remains concealed. Nothing is as fascinating as love, unfortunately.

I know love is dark work; you have to get your hands dirty. If you hold back, nothing interesting happens. At the same time, you have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you; too far and they abandon you. How to hold them in the right relation? (...)"

Intimacy, by Hanif Kureishi