Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build this whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, wanders into your stupid life .... you give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They do something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should just be friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns you into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts, not just in the imagination, not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.
-neil gaiman