Zack Love Quotes

“And today is really the happiest day of your life, because today you woke up and stumbled across the shadow of your soul in broad daylight."

From Central Park Song: a Screenplay”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“The danger of prolonged despair is its tendency to cloud the gift of a new beginning that every tomorrow offers.

--Anissa's Redemption”
― Zack Love

“It's bewildering to me how you can just start chatting with a complete stranger on Facebook, and - next thing you know - it seems as if there's some intense connection with the person - or at least you feel that closeness and hope it's mutual”
― Zack Love, The Syrian Virgin

“At one point, I began to think that I had a divine doorman. Lenny was the most unlikely incarnation of God I could imagine, and yet, I kept drifting irresistibly towards this absurd conclusion. Despite my staunchly atheistic inclinations, I couldn't explain Lenny any other way. But eventually I came to my senses and realized that he was just one of those game show freaks with an encyclopedic memory. That didn't make him God, did it? Would God proclaim so regularly how much he likes Patsy's Pizza?”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“At times like these, size really does matter," I point out, at I extend my ginormous umbrella over her in a way that stops any rain droplets from falling on her.

My Best Valentine's Day Ever, A Short Story by Zack Love”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“Carlos, your mysophobia does affect my health. I feel freer – more alive, more vivacious and, ironically enough, healthier – if I’m not constantly made to worry about germs and unhealthy choices. Whether it’s for a moment of spontaneous kissing in a phone booth or eating an occasional hamburger…Obsessing about your health doesn’t actually make you healthier. The fact of the matter is, Carlos, our bodies are decaying at every moment, regardless of what we do. Living is bad for your health.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

“Maybe if you live in an antiseptic bubble specially designed by the CDC it doesn’t. But in a place like New York City, you’re fighting a pointless battle. You can either embrace the dirt and the germs as part of the risky joy of living in an exciting, overpopulated metropolis, or you can spend lots of mental real estate obsessing over whether you touched a few extra microbes when you got on the subway.”
― Zack Love, Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC

“I wish I knew how to get you back. And apparently fate won't let me give up"


From Central Park Song: a Screenplay”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“It's not how long you see something. It's how you intensely you feel it"


From Central Park Song: a Screenplay”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“My decision to become a teacher suddenly seemed even more appropriate. Life had just become that much more unpredictably precarious and ill-suited to long-term planning, and it felt that much more necessary to spread love and knowledge to those who would one day have to manage this messy and painful world of ours"

Also in Zack Love's "Stories and Scripts: an Anthology”
― Zack Love, The Doorman

“...And on my fourth morning in Naples, I woke up alone. There was a note on the table with the breakfast that Cinzia had quietly prepared for me. It read, "It could never be. But that's why it will always be - perfectly divine. Cinzia"

City Solipsism: A Short Story”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“New York City is legendary for sleeping around. There's hot tail everywhere and it's such a big city that two-timing and even three-timing is very doable, if you plan it right."


From "My Worst Valentine's Day.Ever. (a Short Story)”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“So I'm delighted to open up a bit about these particular details, in honor of Valentine's Day (when every balding, chubby, and short actuary wants people - especially the babes out there - to know about his studly past"

From: "My Best Valentine's Day.Ever: a Short Story”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“Summoning my inner Kojak, I tried to convince myself that she would have sat next to me even had there been somewhere else on the bus to sit. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job of self-persuasion. Good thing I wasn't in court suing myself, because I would have lost.

From: "My Best Valentine's Day.Ever: A Short Story”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology

“But I did feel the vertigo of death’s invitation, beckoning me towards the dark waters below. Only a newfound perspective and desire steadied my wavering soul. I came to realize, just in time, that suicide was far too easy – and obscenely cowardly – after someone I knew, not even half my age, had been through so much worse and still marched gloriously on.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“My past still haunts me when I sleep, although I saw that - much to my surprise- his does as well.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“A few minutes later, my eyes began to feel a bit droopy, but I vaguely noticed that Anissa was whispering something.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“Well, I’m glad that you and I are now so comfortable in our relationship that you can advise me on how to seduce my professor,” I joked.”
― Zack Love, The Syrian Virgin

“I had always been an atheist until I met Lenny. He was too wonderously complex and good for there to be no benevolent and intelligent force behind our marvelous cosmos. Lenny gave me the actual proof my fiercely skeptical mind had always demanded. Not some logical, 37-step proof of God's existence. It was a personal proof. And it was irrefutable.”
― Zack Love, The Doorman

“Sadly enough, sometimes you and Lenny are the only real human interactions that I have all day. The rest of the day I'm just like a machine that mechnically computes and produces

Also in "Stories and Scripts:An Anthology”
― Zack Love, The Doorman

“In some mystical way, Lenny seemed to ennoble work more than anyone I had ever met"

Also in "Stories and Scripts:an Anthology”
― Zack Love, The Doorman

“Now give me some advice about how to take full advantage of this city. I’m always looking to improve my odds.”

“Just what I’d expect from a horny actuary.”

“I’m serious.”

Carlos reflected for a moment on the problem at hand. He actually had never needed or tried to take full advantage of the city in order to meet women, but he thought about all of his friends who regularly did. His face lit up as he thought of some helpful advice: “Get into the arts.”

“The arts?”

“Yeah.”

“But I’m not artistic.”

“It doesn’t matter. Many women are into the arts. Theater. Painting. Dance. They love that stuff.”

“You want me to get into dance? Earthquakes have better rhythm than me…And can you really picture me in those tights?”

“Take an art history class. Learn photography. Get involved in a play or an independent film production. Get artsy, Sammy. I’m telling you, the senoritas dig that stuff.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You need to sign up for a bunch of artistic activities. But you can’t let on that it’s all just a pretext to meet women. You have to take a real interest in the subject or they’ll quickly sniff out your game.”

“I don’t know…It’s all so foreign to me…I don’t know the first thing about being artistic.”

“Heeb, this is the time to expand your horizons. And you’re in the perfect city to do it. New York is all about reinventing yourself. Get out of your comfort zones. Become more of a Renaissance man. That’s much more interesting to women.”
― Zack Love, Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC

“Speaking of body decorations, I luuhhhvv your belly piercing!” Heeb said, looking at the gold ring in the center of her slim, tan waist. Despite the artic cold, Angelina had opted for a skin tight, black tube top that ended just above her belly, on the assumption that a warm cab, a winter coat, and a short wait to get into the club was an adequate frosty weather strategy. Heeb was still reverently staring at her belly when Angelina finally caught her breath from laughing.

“Do you really like it? You’re just saying that so that you can check out my belly!”

“And what’s so bad about that? I mean, didn’t you get that belly piercing so that people would check out your belly?”

“No. I just thought it would look cool…Do you have any piercings?”

“Actually, I do,” Heeb replied.

“Where?”

“My appendix.”

“Huh?”

“I wanted to be the first guy with a pierced organ. And the appendix is a totally useless organ anyway, so I figured why the hell not?”

“That’s pretty original,” she replied, amused.

“Oh yeah. I’ve outdone every piercing fanatic out there. The only problem is when I have to go through metal detectors at the airport.”

Angelina burst into laughs again, and then managed to say, “Don’t you have to take it out occasionally for a cleaning?”

“Nah. I figure I’ll just get it removed when my appendix bursts. It’ll be a two for one operation, if you know what I mean.”
― Zack Love, Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC

“In addition to my new outlook on life, in some absurdly simple way, Anissa gave me several new reasons to live. Above all, I had to see her again and find out what, if anything, would happen between her and me.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“The lead-up to the moment was magical in every respect, but a part of me was, and still is, uneasy about the whole thing for many reasons.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“But I stayed up thinking about how I've been lying to him, no less than I lie to myself in my pre-sleep ritual. And I lied to him again just as we were growing more intimate than ever and he asked me about my scar.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“Adding to my emotional dizziness on Sunday, I spoke with my sister, who kept noting how amazing Michael is, and what a brave and selfless man he is for having helped as he did.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“Titus, have you ever had your heart broken?”

“Oh, son. How could you ask a man who used to play the blues a question like that?”

“How long does it take to go away?”

“A broken heart?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s no precise formula, Sammy.”

“Just give me an estimate.”

“A good rule of thumb is at least half the time that you were in love. Or twice the time. It all just depends.”
― Zack Love, Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC

“She was somehow this damaged creature I had fortuitously encountered along my path and now cared about as a result. Granted, I didn't cause her harm, as I did with Icarus, but I somehow began to feel responsible for her welfare.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“But then, as I looked in the mirror, I became fixated on some hairs near my carotid artery that were still there. I pushed the blade deep against my neck to shave them off, and then blood squirted out.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption

“He clearly suffers from some past traumas too, so hopefully he'll understand why I was untruthful to him about mine.”
― Zack Love, Anissa's Redemption