Well... in the english language you used the expression "I love you" for a lot of different feelings (love for
your parents, friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.) but in the spanish languaje -wich is the one I speak- you use
"te quiero mucho" (that means "I feel a great affection for you" or something like that) when you
want to express an affection for a friend, your parents, family, etc. But in the case of your girlfriend, boyfriend,
husband, wife, etc. you use the expression "te amo" (the real "I love you" in the english language)
two words that involves passion, jealousy, companionship, etc.
In my life I used "te quiero mucho" a lot of times with a lot of people that -in a way or another- had a deep
meaning in my life (my parents, friends of a lifetime and my dear and only sister) but -since I had never fallen in love
with someone- the words "te amo" had never been said by me, I think that I'm waiting for the right person
who will make me said these words. So , in a way I had already said "I love you"a bunch of times, but at the
same time... I haven't said those powerfull words at all ^^.
"... It's clear to me now that I have been moving toward you and you toward me for a long time. Though neither
of us was aware of the other before we met, there was a kind of mindless certainty humming blithely along beneath our
ignorance that ensured we could come together. Like two solitary birds flying the great prairies by celestial reckoning,
all of these years and lifetimes we have been moving toward one another..."
Robert James Waller (The bridges of Madison county).