Lillian Freda

“She’s pretty, but her face doesn’t transform into sunlight when she talks about music.” He did that clench thing with his jaw and said, “She’s funny, but not spit-out-your-drink-in-astonishment funny.” It felt like my heart was going to explode as his eyes moved down to my lips under the glow of the buzzing streetlight. He moved his face a little closer to mine, looked into my eyes, and rumbled, “And when I see her, I don’t feel like I have to talk to her or mess up her hair or do something—anything—to get her to swing that gaze on me.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“She’s not you.”

“What?”

“She. Isn’t. You.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“Also—thanks to Taylor Swift, for writing songs that feel like books.”
― Lynn Painter, The Do-Over

“You look best when you're you.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies