Romcoms Quotes

“—and there weren't any words for what was happening, and even though words were important, they weren't everything. A lot of things happened outside the world of words.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

“The thought of seeing him had left her a tangled jumble of basket case, complete with a straight jacket for accessory.”
― Kelly Moran, Mistletoe Magic

“Twenty-five years, and it still felt like yesterday he’d ripped her heart out of her chest. While it had still been beating.”
― Kelly Moran, Mistletoe Magic

“Please don’t spontaneously break out into Christmas carols.”
― Kelly Moran, Mistletoe Magic

“Another of my pet peeves is that the female characters used to be all sort of cutesy, like having flour on their nose after they baked cookies and not knowing it. And now they're all a mess, like waking up really hungover and getting fired. I want to create characters who aren't flawless but also aren't ridiculous or incompetent at life.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy

“And I love that you never needed me to save you, but holy shit, I needed you to save me.”
― Leeanne Slade, The Rebound

“We all have our issues, it’s just some of us are better at hiding them from the world than others.”
― Leeanne Slade, The Rebound

“This guy isn’t offering you the world, he’s offering you the same thing he always has: the bare minimum. He’s holding you back and you know it. If you concede, you’ll resent him forever.”
― Leeanne Slade, The Rebound

“And I hope one day, when you realise I’m right about this, that you lie awake in deep regret that those words were the last thing you ever said to me.”
― Leeanne Slade, The Rebound

“Romance novels, rom-coms, non-tragic love stories—they all run on a blissful sense that we’re moving toward something better. Percentage-wise, the majority of clues writers drop in romance novels don’t give you things to dread. They give you things to look forward to.

This, right here—more than anything else—is why people love them. The banter, the kissing, the tropes, even the spice … that’s all just extra.
It’s the structure—that “predictable” structure—that does it. Anticipating that you’re heading toward a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead. And there’s a name for what you’re feeling when you do that.

Hope.

Sometimes I see people grasping for a better word than predictable to describe a romance. They’ll say, ‘It was predictable—but in a good way.’

I see what they’re going for. But I’m not sure it needs pointing out that over the course of a love story … people fell in love. I mean: Of course they did! I don’t think it’s possible to write a love story where the leads getting together at the end is a surprise. And even if it were, why would you want to? The anticipation—the blissful, delicious, oxytocin-laden, yearning-infused, building sense of anticipation—is the point. It’s the cocktail of emotions we all came there to feel.

I propose we stop using the hopelessly negative word predictable to talk about love stories and start using anticipation. As in: 'This love story really created a fantastic feeling of anticipation.'

Structurally, thematically, psychologically—love stories create hope and then use it as fuel. Two people meet—and then, over the course of three hundred pages, they move from alone to together. From closed to open. From judgy to understanding. From cruel to compassionate. From needy to fulfilled. From ignored to seen. From misunderstood to appreciated. From lost to found. Predictably.

That’s not a mistake. That’s a guarantee of the genre: Things will get better. And you, the reader, get to be there for it.

It’s a gift the love story gives you.”
― Katherine Center, Hello Stranger

“I’ll never take for granted being myself again. Even when I’m in deep shit like I am now.”
― Melinda Minx

“Grants footsteps are the same as they always were, they are soft and slow but also confident, like him, he knows I'll follow.”
― Robby Weber, If You Change Your Mind

“Ya sabes por qué nos han invitado, Miles. Porque son adictos a que los quiera todo el mundo. Y se les da bien. Tanto como para no darse cuenta de que no se puede esperar amor de las personas a las que has destruido por completo. Ahora mismo se creen que son los buenos de la película. Pero no tienen derecho a verse así. Van a pasarse años viviendo con la certeza de que son los idiotas.”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

“No es cinismo. Si no responsabilizas a los demás de tus sentimientos, puedes tener una relación decente con casi todo el mundo.”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

“Y resulta que una sorpresa es distinta cuando procede de alguien que te conoce y te quiere.”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

“Y me siento afortunado cada vez que me miras. No porque crea merecerte, sino porque tengo la sensación de que no necesitas que lo haga. Como si… te gustara tal como soy.”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

“Because you see the parts of me I thought everyone else was blind to.”
― M.K. Morris, A Holiday Liaison: A Grumpy Boss Romance

“The love I know isn’t drowning together in water and calling the suffocation poetry.”
― Seethala Devi Chandu, You Are Like a Flame to Me: The Algorithm of Letting Go

“She’s chaos in denim and eyeliner. And I’d let her ruin me a thousand times over.”
― M Rhiannon, Tequila Songbird: A hot rockstar romantic comedy with masks, second chances, and rules begging to be broken.