Thoughts are never honest. Emotions are. Do not go around asking for honesty in what people think; much of what they perceive as thinking is empty anyway because it’s thought out again and again and comes out refined and muddy. The ones who know how to feel might have to say to you a couple of interesting things or not and when they do that, you ought to know how to listen. So learn how to listen. You can’t make someone open up about their feelings in case they don’t want to. But you can remain open yourself through listening deeply and completely; they might want to talk about the weather and keep it simple — allow them to feel the simplicity…Emotion pours out directly or indirectly each time people engage themselves in the process of genuine interaction.

Do I believe that love can solve everything?

No.

Love gives our lives meaning and a sense of purpose, but it cannot solve everything.

But time, as Murakami wrote, solves most things. It softens roughened edges whilst bringing certain features into relief. 

Love depends on our humanness, with too many conditions and shifting parts that don’t always coalesce. Time’s only prerogative is to move forward. It is so simple, yet so beyond our control. It commands us with a passive force that we are incapable of wielding.

Love is as fragile and multifaceted as we are. It is precious and painful. We hold it close because it is the closest we can come to reveling in our own existence.