Romance Novels Quotes

1. "NOVEL, n. A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama. Unity, totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last read all that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before. To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting. Its distinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literal actuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the category of reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him to mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain; and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. The art of writing novels, such as it was, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new. Peace to its ashes — some of which have a large sale."
Author: Ambrose Bierce

2. "Sam. I've got news for you. Not every childhood trauma can be healed by finding the right penis."Sam looked devastated. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes wide, then suddenly slumped back against the railing, unable to support himself anymore. "You mean," his voice was barely a whisper. "All those romance novels lied?"
Author: Anne Tenino

3. "Ivanov: And this whole romance of ours is commonplace and trite: he lost heart, and he lost his way. She came along, strong and brave in spirit, and gave him an helping hand. That's all very well and plausible in novels, but in life...Sasha: In life it's the same.Ivanov: I see you have a fine understanding of life!"
Author: Anton Chekhov

4. "Most common people oft he market-place much prefer light literature to improving books. The problem is, that so many romances contain slanderous anecdotes about sovereigns and ministers or cast aspersions upon man's wives and daughters so that they are packed with sex and violence. Even worse are those writers of the breeze-and-moonlight school, who corrupt the young with pornography and filth. As for books of the beauty-and-talented-scholar type, a thousand are written to a single pattern and none escapes bordering on indecency. They are filled with allusions to handsome, talented young men and beautiful, refined girls in history; but in order to insert a couple of his own love poems, the author invents stereotyped heroes and heroines with the inevitable low character to make trouble between them like a clown in a play, and makes even the slave girls talk pedantic nonsense. So all these novels are full of contradictions and absurdly unnatural."
Author: Cao Xueqin

5. "Romance novels can be broken down into two broad categories: historical romances, which utilize a wide variety of historical backdrops, and contemporary romances. The distinction is important because the temporal settings have a strong influence on plot lines and the type of fantasy that is found in the books."
Author: Cathie Linz

6. "Neither would you, had you grown up in a library of melodramatic romance novels."
Author: Clementine Holzinger

7. "Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there's one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can't see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she's like, oh dear, however will I choose? William is so sensitive, he understands me, he swept me off my feet, oh misery, blubber, blubber, but how can I go on living without Rafe and his devil-may-care ways and his dark and only-a-little-abusive love? Upchuck."
Author: Cynthia Hand

8. "His gaze slid over me like a veil of fire. He could ignite my deepest desires with a single glance. I decided right then and there no more reading romance novels by candelight."
Author: Darynda Jones

9. "Emma's mid-twenties had brought a second adolescence even more self-absorbed and doom-laden than the first one. 'Why don't you just come home, sweetheart?' her mum had said on the phone last night, using her quavering, concerned voice, as if her daughter had been abducted. 'Your room's still here. There's jobs at Debenhams' - and for the first time she had been tempted.Once, she thought she could conquer London. She had imagined a whirl of literary salons, political engagement, larky parties, bittersweet romances conducted on Thames embankments. She had intended to form a band, make short films, write novels, but two years on slim volume of verse was no fatter, and nothing really good had happened to her since she'd been baton-charged at Poll Tax Riots."
Author: David Nicholls

10. "If you're waiting for me to declare my undying love for you, I can't do that yet, blood-bond or no blood-bond. If you think I'm the swoony type of heroine you find in romance novels, who'll fall into your arms just because you saved me from an alternate reality or whatever, get ready to leave empty handed, because I don't want to be caught."
Author: Dianna Hardy

11. "Love is rather impotent and pitiful: My father must have told me a million times how much he loved me, but that emotion - assuming it was even real - hardly had the strength to counter the many other acts of wrong he committed against me. Contrary to romance novels and the love-conquers-all mentality that even those of us who grow up in an era of divorce are - in response to some atavistic instinct - still raised to believe, love is always a product and a victim of circumstances. It is fragile and small."
Author: Elizabeth Wurtzel

12. "When I first thought of the idea for 'Sweet Valley High,' I loved the idea of high school as microcosm of the real world. And what I really liked was how it moved things on from 'Sleeping Beauty'-esque romance novels where the girl had to wait for the hero. This would be girl-driven, very different, I decided - and indeed it is."
Author: Francine Pascal

13. "There is an old-fashioned distinction between the novel of character and the novel of incident, which must have cost many a smile to the intending romancer who was keen about his work. It appears to me as little to the point as the equally celebrated distinction between the novel and the romance- to answer as little to any reality. There are bad novels and good novels, as there are bad pictures and good pictures; but that is the only distinction in which I see any meaning, and I can as little imagine speaking of a novel of character as I can imagine speaking of a picture of character. When one says picture, one says of character, when one says novel, one says of incident, and the terms may be transposed. What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character? What is a picture or a novel that is not of character? What else do we seek in it and find in it?"
Author: Henry James

14. "The romance genre is the only genre where readers are guaranteed novels that place the heroine at the heart of the story. These are books that celebrate women's heroic virtues and values: courage, honor, determination and a belief in the healing power of love."
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

15. "We talk a bit, until Tess is sufficiently calm, and then I take her upstairs and see her snuggled back into bed with Cyclops and one of Maura's romance novels. Strange bedfellows, but both seem to comfort her, and it serves to remind me again that she is a strange mix of woman and child, carrying a burden far too heavy for her."
Author: Jessica Spotswood

16. "He looked as if he'd stepped straight off the cover of one of those romance novels she ordered from Amazon.com so she didn't have to be embarassed by some supercilious male clerk in the bookstore."
Author: Karen Marie Moning

17. "She's grateful for what she was born with. She should be. It's an awesome face, a perfect face, an ethereal face. The kind people write songs and poems and suicide notes about. It's that exotic kind of beauty that men in romance novels obsess over, even if they have no idea who you are, because they must possess you. That kind of beauty."
Author: Katja Millay

18. "How'd you get so smart about all this love stuff, anyway?""I write fucking romance novels, sweetie. I'm making it up as I go."
Author: Kimberly Kincaid

19. "So you want something similar to what's depicted in romance novels?" "Not exactly. I want a man who'll love me with a forever kind of love. One who stimulates me both physically and intellectually. Who challenges me and isn't afraid to be challenged by me."
Author: L.V. Lewis

20. "Me, sweep him off his feet? I know. The laws of the jungle and romance novels would have it the other way around, but I'm not going to wait one more second for that."
Author: Laini Taylor

21. "Teenage Turn-OnsAs played by Robert Pattinson in the Twilight Saga movies, Edward has a certain physical sex appeal thanks in part to the the actor's handsome features. but the appeal in both the movies and the novels has nothing to do with a bad-boy energy that so often translates into sexiness because, really, even when he's full-out vamp, there isn't that much of a bad boy to be found in his character. Curiously, the sexiness of the vampire Edward comes from his safeness. He is the ultimate fantasy man. Described in overly ripe prose, his physical perfection is glorious. He might be a little cool to the touch-but gosh! Look at him! He's youthful, with a perfect body, or the sort of man found in the pages of a million romance novels. And most important, he will do what ever it takes to keep his beloved Bella safe, whether the danger comes from the world or himself."
Author: Laura L. Enright

22. "The most cherished goal in physics, as in bad romance novels, is unification."
Author: Lee Smolin

23. "For readers worldwide, the attraction of romance novels seems to be that they provide hope, strength, and the assurance that happy endings are possible. Romance makes the promise that no matter how bleak things sometimes look, in the end everything will turn out right and true love will triumph -- and in an uncertain world, that's very comforting."
Author: Leigh Michaels

24. "Maybe she should stop reading those damn romance novels. They were giving her crazy expectations."
Author: Lexi Blake

25. "Exercise - ugh - never one of my favorite things. It wasn't that I was endearingly clumsy like the girl in one of my favorite romance novels, nor was I particularly athletic, either. I suppose, if the truth be told, I was just plain lazy. I had never been attracted to the idea of purposely sweating. Grace"
Author: Lisa C. Temple

26. "I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too."
Author: Lisa Gardner

27. "What I loved about romances was the character, and I think I still bring that to my novels. What romance taught me was that the 'who' will always matter more than the 'what.' It's fun to come up with plots, but I want to make sure the reader cares about who it's happening to."
Author: Lisa Gardner

28. "Close your mouth Lily, you look like a codfish.""I can't help it. This place looks like something out of medieval times. I'm surprised there aren't rushes on the floor or half-dressed serving wenches carrying trenchers of food.""Read Harlequin much?""Shut up. There's nothing wrong with romance novels. You could learn something from them you know."Sean's mouth curved into a slow, seductive grin. He let his fingers drift casually along the side of her arm, deliberately grazing the edge of her breast. "Could I now?"
Author: Marianne Morea

29. "Life isn't a romance novel. The truth is, the reason romance novels sell so well ---- the reason why everyone loves them ---- is because no one's life is actually like that. Everyone WANTS their life to be like that."
Author: Meg Cabot

30. "Dear Mia,What can I say? I don't know all that much about romance novels, but I think you must be the Stephen King of the genre. Your book is hot. Thanks for letting me read it. Anyone who doesn't want to publish it is a fool.Anyway, since I know it's your birthday, and I also know you never remember to back anything up, here's a little something I made for you. It would be a shame if Ransom My Heart got lost before it ever saw the light of day because your hard drive crashed. See you tonight.Love,Michael"
Author: Meg Cabot

31. "I'm not going to force you into anything you don't want. But I'm also not going to take a vow of chastity and pine away for you, or whatever the hell it is that men do in romance novels these days. I have needs. I'd rather satisfy them with you, but if you don't want me I suppose I'll just have to find someone else. Might take me a while, but I'll make do. I always have before."
Author: Nenia Campbell

32. "I would be rejected if I submitted any of my novels as romance novels."
Author: Nicholas Sparks

33. "I don't write romance novels."
Author: Nicholas Sparks

34. "I wondered what he would have thought if he'd known that I'd gleaned most of my information from reading historical romance novels."
Author: Nicole Luiken

35. "Suddenly his expression turned to alarm. He sprinted toward us. For a moment I had an absurd vision of myself on the cover of one of Gran's old romance novels, where the damsel wilts into thearms of one half-dressed beefy guy while another stands by,casting her longing looks. Oh, the horrible choices a girl must make! I wished I'd had a moment to clean up. I was still covered in dried river muck, twine, and grass, like I'd been tarred and feathered. Then Anubis pushed past me and gripped Walt's shoulders.Well…that was unexpected."
Author: Rick Riordan

36. "Burning Ashes does nothing to elevate my grim opinion of cricket-themed novels. Had I but taken, before proceeding, a cursory glance at her publisher's back-catalogue, I might have been more tolerant. Dreamspinner Press deals in "Gay Romance Novels and Short Stories." Among its professed best-sellers is a volume entitled More Than Everything by "Cardeno C." (I, too, would have hidden behind an anonym.) One thought at first—or better say one hoped—that this would take the form of a rejoinder to Slavoj Žižek. One was wrong."
Author: Rodney Ulyate

37. "Fantasy novels reveal "emergency escape routes" from reality. Romance novels dish out a banquet of Eye Candy. Otherworldly passion erupts when the two collide in an epic novel of unforgettable characters and dire circumstances."
Author: Sarah J. Pepper

38. "Jared turned and Raisa caught her breath. She'd spent the whole of her natural and unnatural life longing for someone to want her. To look at her like the heroes of romance novels looked at the women they loved. Like she was the sun to his moon, the heart in his soul. In the moment Jared's eyes met hers, she knew she hadn't dreamed big enough."
Author: Sarah McCarty

39. "Romance novels are my favorite books to read. I write young adult romances, and am so happy to be promoting this wonderful genre."
Author: Simone Elkeles

40. "MEG (to Dante, the vampire):"Vampires aren't as cool as I expected them to be. In romance novels, vampires are all dark and broody and sexy. In real life, you talk an awful lot about stocks."
Author: Sophie Oak

41. "Uh oh, maybe I'm hysterical. No, the look on his face had been so funny. Did he really think to kiss me into submission? That shit might work in romance novels, but not on me. If he wants to kiss me he'll have to earn that privilege again."
Author: Tamara Hoffa

Romance Novels Quotes Pictures