They don’t ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.

I have little left in myself — I must have you. The world may laugh — may call me absurd, selfish — but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.

I don’t ask for much. I should ask for a lot, then maybe I might get some.

-Yo te gusto- continuó ella-, por el motivo que ya te he dicho; he roto tu soledad, te he recogido precisamente ante la puerta del infierno y te he despertado de nuevo. Pero quiero de ti más, mucho más. Quiero hacer que te enamores de mí. No, no me contradigas, déjame hablar. Te gusto mucho, de eso me doy cuenta, y tú me estas agradecido, pero enamorado de mí no lo estás. Yo voy a hacer que lo estés, esto pertenece a mi profesión; como que vivo de eso, de poder hacer que los hombres se enamoren de mí. Pero entérate bien: no hago esto porque te encuentre francamente encantador. No estoy enamorada como tú de mí. Pero te necesito, como tú me necesitas. Tú me necesitas actualmente, de momento, porque estás desesperado y te hace falta un impulso que te eche el agua y te vuelva a reanimar. Me necesitas para aprender a bailar, para aprender a reír, para aprender a vivir. Yo, en cambio, también te necesito a ti, no hoy, más adelante, para algo muy importante y hermoso. Te daré mi última orden cuando estés enamorado de mí, y tú obedecerás, y ello será bueno para ti y para mi.
No te ha de ser cosa fácil, pero lo harás, cumplirás mi mandato y me matarás. Eso es todo. No preguntes más nada.

I would give you all my love, but I’m afraid I’d get nothing in return. And coming from you, nothing is simply much more than I want.

A nadie le gusta que lo obliguen a hacer algo. Es más, el amor se da siempre con libertad. No se puede exigir el amor. Podemos pedirnos cosas el uno al otro, pero nunca debemos exigir nada. Las peticiones dan dirección al amor, pero las demandas detienen el flujo del amor.

Only one thing is expect of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself and love with all your being and all your light without stopping.

If you really love me, you have to come to me without demands, I thought but didn’t say, I wanted her to notice on her own.

An alive and loving person simply loves. Love is a natural function. So the second thing to remember is, don’t ask for perfection; otherwise you will not find any love flowing in you. On the contrary, you will become unloving. People who demand perfection are very unloving people, neurotic. Even if they can find a lover they demand perfection, and the love is destroyed because of that demand. Once a man loves a woman or a woman loves a man, demands immediately enter. The woman starts demanding that the man should be perfect, just because he loves her. As if he has committed a sin! Now he has to be perfect, now he has to drop all his limitations — suddenly, just because of this woman? Now he cannot be human? Either he has to become superhuman or he has to become phony, false, a cheat. Naturally, to become superhuman is very difficult, so people become cheats. They start pretending and acting and playing games. In the name of love people are just playing games. So the second thing to remember is never to demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don’t demand anything — because the other has no obligation to love you. If somebody loves, it is a miracle. Be thrilled by the miracle.

So the second thing to remember is never to demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don’t demand anything — because the other has no obligation to love you.

I ask for nothing but to live in my suffering.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself?

Love rules me. It determines what I ask.

All you need is love.