Natalie Clifford Barney Quotes

It's easy to get wrapped up in sharing everyday life with a partner. It's fun to get lost in love and romance. It's the best. But holding on to yourself while doing that is the most important thing.

I can be in a beautiful, loving and caring relationship, but it can't be 24x7 and 30 days a month. At the end of the day, I need my time alone.

It's important in a relationship to have moments when you do your own thing.

Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.

I talk to my friends and, you know, they all seem to get relationships that aren't right. You kind of want someone who is not at your beck and call but loves the idea of being in a relationship and what that entails.

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.

Although we are busy with our own work, we still try and spend time together. At the same time, we give each other space. I think that is the key to a successful marriage.

What's the secret to such a long and happy relationship? I don't know. Maybe because I work a lot.

In any relationship, after the first year is over, you can't help but want your own space.

I love my personal life and having a social life. And I didn't ever want to have to compromise.

I'm not really easy to live with! There needs to be unlimited patience and unconditional love. Men I've known before loved my independent spirit and were proud of my success, to the point that they'd become jealous of the time I devote to my career.

Boyfriends have to understand me and my needs. They have to know what I want out of my life and about my strict regime. I go to bed at 10pm and not later. I separate my professional and private lives.

If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.

Relationships are important, but stay focused on all the things that are important. Figure out what you want.

It's a great relationship when you can work with the person who you consider to be your soul mate.

I think the hardest thing to do in a relationship is something for yourself.

It's easy to get lost in the baby. You have to make sure you give your husband attention.

Ideally, couples need three lives; one for him, one for her, and one for them together.

If love means that one person absorbs the other, then no real relationship exists any more. Love evaporates; there is nothing left to love. The integrity of self is gone.

I've definitely been in relationships where I've given too much, and I've been in relationships where I haven't given enough. I think it's a work in progress. I have to find that person where it clicks.

In a great romance, each person basically plays a part that the other really likes.

Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets them.

I like my life alone. I mean, I love being with friends, and I love kissing and loving someone to pieces. But it's hard to find someone who doesn't ultimately start judging you and your choices.

The great marriages are partnerships. It can't be a great marriage without being a partnership.

No partner in a love relationship... should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.