How we cite our quotes: (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored-up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. (Ballad.80)
In Ballad, a tall mannish (possibly lonely) woman falls in love with an ageless, sickly hunchback. Love, in McCullers's estimation, is much more about the lover, and what he needs, than the beloved, and what he is.
Quote #2
He must house his love within himself as best he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world—a world intense and strange, complete in himself. (Ballad.80)
Loving is a form of isolation, which makes us wonder if Miss Amelia a "complete" woman herself, in her boarded-up building, at the end of the story.
Quote #3
That solitary, gangling, queer-eyed girl was the one he longed for. Nor did he want her because of her money, but solely out of love. (Ballad.84)
It's interesting here that the narrator doesn't seem much interested in explaining why Marvin Macy falls in love with Miss Amelia. But this isn't the first time they refuse to explain the emotions or interior motivations going on in a character's head.