God knows I wanted love... but the moment I had to choose between the man I loved and my dresses... I chose the dresses
Love and happiness inextricably combined? I wanted love stories to coincide with war stories, I wanted hope for my characters, I wanted a sense of a future. So do they. So does the reader. But perhaps I shouldn't speak for everyone when I say that love and happiness are interdependent. In my own experience, happiness came with love. Specifically, my wife. That's when my own apathy and stasis ended for good.
Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.
He never wanted love, though. You cannot eat love, nor buy a horse with it, nor warm your halls on a cold night.