"I think that can happen, that two people can love each other and not be able to get on at all"
About this Quote
It lands like a quiet confession from someone who’s watched romance fail up close: love isn’t the problem, compatibility is. Alan Bates isn’t romanticizing heartbreak here; he’s stripping it of its usual narrative comfort. The line refuses the popular plot twist that “if it’s real love, it works out.” Instead, it treats love as a force that can be genuine and still useless in day-to-day life.
The phrasing matters. “I think” softens the claim into lived observation, not doctrine. “Can happen” makes it ordinary, almost banal, which is the point: this isn’t a rare tragedy, it’s a common human mismatch. Then there’s the blunt British plainness of “get on,” a domestic, unglamorous verb that drags love out of moonlight and into the kitchen. It’s not about grand betrayal; it’s about friction, temperament, timing, and the exhausting micro-negotiations of coexistence.
Coming from an actor known for inhabiting complex, often morally knotted characters, the subtext reads like craft as much as autobiography. Bates specialized in performances where desire doesn’t translate cleanly into harmony, where intimacy can curdle into irritation without ever becoming hatred. The quote nods to a mid-to-late 20th-century realism that challenged the idea of the “right person” as destiny. It’s a grown-up sentiment: love can be true, and still not be enough to build a life that feels livable.
The phrasing matters. “I think” softens the claim into lived observation, not doctrine. “Can happen” makes it ordinary, almost banal, which is the point: this isn’t a rare tragedy, it’s a common human mismatch. Then there’s the blunt British plainness of “get on,” a domestic, unglamorous verb that drags love out of moonlight and into the kitchen. It’s not about grand betrayal; it’s about friction, temperament, timing, and the exhausting micro-negotiations of coexistence.
Coming from an actor known for inhabiting complex, often morally knotted characters, the subtext reads like craft as much as autobiography. Bates specialized in performances where desire doesn’t translate cleanly into harmony, where intimacy can curdle into irritation without ever becoming hatred. The quote nods to a mid-to-late 20th-century realism that challenged the idea of the “right person” as destiny. It’s a grown-up sentiment: love can be true, and still not be enough to build a life that feels livable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
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