"The story is about the delight we take in metaphor." (
Prologue, xi

"The story concerns the reason why we love to fall in love."
Prologue, xi

"All human desire is poised on an axis of paradox, absence and presence its poles, love and hate its motive energies."
Chap. 2, p. 11

"Eros is a verb."
Chap. 3, p. 17

"Love does not happen without loss of vital self. The lover is the loser."
Chap. 7, p. 32

"The fact that Eros operates by means of an analogous act of imagination will soon be seen to be the most astounding thing about Eros."
Chap. 10, p. 61

"An edge between two images that cannot merge in a single focus because they do not derive from the same level of reality—one is actual, one is possible. To know both, keeping the difference visible, is the subterfuge called Eros."
Chap. 11, p. 69

"Let us superimpose on the question...