Straight Crushin'

If the other suffers from hallucinations, if he fears going mad, I should myself hallucinate, myself go mad. Now, whatever the power of love, this does not occur: I am moved, anguished, for it is horrible to see those one loves suffering, but at the same time I remain dry, watertight.
- Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse

It is not uncommon in love to experience [a] heightened sense of one’s own personality (‘I am more myself than ever before!’ the lover feels) and to rejoice in it as Nietzsche does. The Greek lyric poets do not so rejoice.
- Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet