Elizabeth Kostova Quotes

Why is it that some secrets can drown you while some pull you close to others in a way you never want to lose?

Almost everybody will listen to you when you tell your own story.

On airplanes, strangers confide in me the most deepest, darkest secrets. And I think they think I'll understand. And I generally do understand.

In the dark you can feel really close to a person. You can say whatever you want.

She had loved him. He knew this; he had never doubted it. But she had also asked him to kill her. If you love someone that much, you did not lay that sort of burden on him for the rest of his life.

Oh, the miraculous energy that flows between two people who care enough to get beyond surfaces and games, who are willing to take the risks of being totally open, of listening, of responding with the whole heart. How much we can do for each other.

Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.

Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.

If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.

I think invariably when you are dealing with relationships, the films really center on that, and the plot is really born out of that. That's the most core part of a relationship: intimacy, I think, whether it's expressed or not.

Through my research, I found that vulnerability is the glue that holds relationships together. It's the magic sauce.

Some of the writers I admire who seem very, very funny and very emotional to me can develop a closeness with the reader without giving too much of themselves away. Lorrie Moore comes to mind, as does David Sedaris. When they write, the reader thinks that they're being trusted as a friend.

You don't want to burden some poor wretch with the entire story of your life.

I was good at being a doctor; my patients liked me. At times people trust you with things they wouldn't tell their spouses. It was a real privilege.

I mean, I come from a hippie mentality where I just think to know someone, you need to look into their eyes. Eyes are so important. Until they start melon-balling eyes out, I won't be able to get to know someone another way.

You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.

It is so much easier to tell intimate things in the dark.

People are dying to tell you their secrets; it's just a matter of getting the conversation going in the right direction. If you just let people fill the silence, they will let you the most extraordinary things. I sometimes wonder if afterward they remember what they've said.

I've really never written about my relationships, or things like that. I wouldn't want to divulge things that were too private.

People have allowed me into their homes, through my words and my music.

Communication is so much better when people are vulnerable.

Any time you put a cast like this in compromising circumstances or shake it up a little bit, I think we're all pretty close so we draw on real emotion.

If we knew each other's secrets, what comforts we should find.