Quotes / The One That Got Away

The only really perfect love is one that gets away.

— The Residents, "Perfect Love"

"Summer romances end for all kinds of reasons. But when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They are shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, a fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash, they're gone."

— Duke, The Notebook

"I had a love, and my love was fair,
Fair as a summer's dawn.
I lost my love, I never knew where,
Suddenly she was gone.
The West Wind stirred the meadow
The night she slipped away,
And I seem to glimpse her shadow
When the West Wind brushes the day."

— Savory, One Touch of Venus, "West Wind"

"I had five mates, before I joined the Yolsh. All gone now. And the one I really wanted, well, the thrill is in the chase, never the capture, and she was too fast for me."

— Shuck, Satellite City, "Hello Stranger"

He lay silent in the grass thinking of her, and then, after a time, perhaps predictably, of Elena. And then, always and forever, certain as dawn or dusk or the turning of the seasons, of Dianora who was dead or lost to him somewhere in the world.

— Baerd, Tigana

"We carry your precious misery with us like a holy fucking relic. Don't talk about Sabetha Belacoros. Don't talk about the plays. Don't talk about Jasmer, or Espara, or any of the schemes we ran. I lived with her for nine years, same as you, and I've pretended she doesn't fucking exist to avoid upsetting you. Well, I'm not you. I'm not content to live like an oath-bound monk."

— Jean to Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies

Now it rains on my north London window pane
How I wish my tire blew on the morning when I left you
And oh how I wish you were here
I'd part all the clouds for you dear
I can't love you more than this
If I can love you more than this
Then I can't love you anymore
I had love and I may have left it too soon
You see she and I, we loved each other to the moon

— Goldspot, "The Moon is Too Far"

In another life, I would be your girl.
We keep all our promises, be us against the world.
In another life, I would make you stay.
So I don't have to say you were the one that got away.

— Katy Perry, The One That Got Away

She took off her silver locket; she said, "Remember me by this"
She put her hand in my pocket; I got a keepsake and a kiss
And in the roar of dust and diesel, I stood and watched her walk away
I could have caught up with her easy enough, but something must have made me stay

[…]

And now I'm searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades
Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades
In any shooting gallery where promises are made
To rockaway, rockaway.

— Dire Straits, "Tunnel of Love"

"Sometimes, I think you don't realize that you could lose me. Are you sure you want to suffer the tortures of a memory of a lost love? Do you know the tortures of the memory of a lost love? It's AWFUL! It'll haunt you night and day! You'll wake up at night screaming! You can't eat! You can't sleep! You'll wanna smash things! You'll hate yourself, and the world, and everybody in it! Ooooohhhhhhhhhh! ...Are you sure you want to risk losing me?"

— Lucy van Pelt, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown

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