This section is related to topics having to do with love, and how characters express love. For example, on page 14, Oskar "petted Buckminster for a few seconds, to show him I loved him."
“I did not need to know if he could love me. I needed to know if he could need me.” (84)
The following quote relates to the one above. "That's all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there" (130). Knowing that it's there is comforting particularly for Oskar because he has issues with safety. It's like having a back up plan "like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet" (130).
Expounding upon the same idea, when Thomas is telling Oskar the story of the sixth borough, he talks about the boy and girl talking through the cans, and how the boy keeps her love in his can. Thomas says the boy never opens the can, fearing he would lose its contents, but it "was enough just to know it was there" (220). This supports the idea of not necessarily needing love, just knowing of its presents comforts us, which Jonathan Safran Foer brings up several times throughout the book.
Also, this section connects to sex and kissing.
inventions Oskar even tries to create order by inventing a device that knew everyone you knew and the degree to which you loved them.
"My life story was spaces."
"... because I wanted him to pay attention to me." (176)
"I would have done anything for him. Maybe that was my sickness.
We made love in nothing places and turned the lights off. It felt like cyring.
We could not look at each other. It always had to be from behind. Like that first time.
And I knew that he wasn't thinking of me."
"I realized that I could compromise my life, but not life after me." (177)
She comprimised for similar feeling of love because she is too desperate to be loved.
"You wouldn't draw someone that much unless you loved him and missed him." (197)
This quote comes from the story about the six boroughs: "The boy asked the girl to say 'I love you' into the can, giving her no further explanation[...]she said, 'I love you.' The words traveled down the yo-yo, the doll, the diary, the necklace, the quilt, the clothesline, the birthday present, the harp, the tea bag, the tennes racket, the hem of the skirt he one day should have pulled from her body. ",Grody!" "The boy covered his can with a lid, removed it from the string and put her love for him on a shelf in his closet. Of course he never could never open the can, because then he would lose its contents. It was enough just to know it was there." This part of the story may even be a way for Oskar's father to tell him, no matter what separated them (perhaps even death) that his love would still be there.
"And how can you say I love you to someone you love? I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her. Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar. It's always necessary. I love you, Grandma" This is the end of Grandma's letter to Oskar. In the entire thing she's trying to tell him that no matter what, you need to tell the people you love that you love them. She says it's always necessary, because at any moment, your loved ones can be whisked away from you.
“I like to see people reunited, maybe that’s a silly thing, but what can I say, I like to see people run into each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can’t tell fast enough, the ears that aren’t big enough, the eyes that can’t take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone…” (109)
This quote is not directly about love, but more of an awareness and appreciation of love.