They say that love between two people grows slowly over time and becomes deeper and richer with the years. That is nonsense. I now know that real love sweeps into one's life with the fury of a sudden storm. It is instant and powerful. Nothing else matters. Reason, restraint, judgment are swept away with the force of a swollen river surging past its banks, and nothing-not thought or feeling, sensations or life itself-can ever be the same again.
- Carolly Erickson, The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
