Julia Quinn quotes:

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  • She tried to remind herself that beauty was only skin deep, but that didn't offer any helpful excuses when she was berating herself for never knowing what to say to people. There was nothing more depressing than an ugly girl with no personality.

  • I keep waiting for the day in which everyone who loves 'Downton Abbey' will realize they were actually watching a historical romance novel.

  • Reformed rakes make the best husbands,"Violet said. "Rubbish and you know it." -Anthony to Violet

  • Love's about finding the one person who makes your heart complete. Who makes you a better person than you ever dreamed you could be. Its about looking in the eyes of your wife and knowing all the way to your bones that she's simply the best person you've ever known.

  • Oh, Elizabeth," he murmured, leaning down to press a gentle kiss on her mouth, "I love you so much. You must believe me." "I believe you," she said softly, "because in your eyes, I see what I feel in my heart.

  • To this day, The Duke and I remains particularly close to my heart; I felt it was the novel in which my writing took a huge leap forward.

  • In college, I was a researcher/writer for 'Let's Go: Europe,' assigned to Crete and Cyprus. I was supposed to go to England, but at the last minute they transferred me, despite the fact that I spoke not a word of Greek. I learned the very basics, and to this day can say 'oil,' 'vinegar,' and 'boyfriend in America.'

  • I'm mostly a historical romance reader, but I never miss a Susan Elizabeth Phillips book. Her characters are larger than life and heartbreakingly real at the same time. I don't know how she does it.

  • I don't think that writing talent has much to do with where one went to school, or the number of degrees on one's business card, but I do get a bit bristly at the implication that romance authors couldn't possibly be smart enough to get into an Ivy League school.

  • The Smythe-Smith musicale. Thankfully, it came around just once per year, because Hyacinth was quite certain it would take a full twelve months for her ears to recover.

  • The general public doesn't expect romance authors to be Harvard graduates. Which is funny, because there are actually quite a lot of us. But this disconnect means that journalists see me as an interesting story. The tricky part is making sure they understand that there are many, many talented writers who don't have 'fancy' educations.

  • She had been born for this man, and she had spent so many years trying to accept the fact that he had been born for someone else

  • You don't have to kiss a lot of frogs to recognize a prince when you find one."-Henrietta Barrett, (Minx, Splendid Trilogy book #3)

  • The biggest challenge of my career, which is something that authors of genre fiction face all the time, is writing something fresh and new and at the same time meeting reader expectations.

  • My love has eyes blue as the sky. Her warm, bright smile makes me want to try To give her the world, And when she's curled Up in my arms where I can feel her touch, I realize again that I love her so much. My world has turned from black to white. Kissing in starlight, basking in sunlight, dancing at midnight.' ~John's poem for Belle

  • There are people who say they want to write novels. They think, 'I'll learn my craft on the romance novel.' If you don't love the genre, it's going to show, and it's not going to be a good book.

  • For me, the dialogue is the easiest part of writing. It just always seems so obvious what a character will say. Maybe it's because I talk too much!

  • When the dead body said, "Good evening," Annabel had to face the grim conclusion that it wasn't as dead as she'd hoped.

  • You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.

  • He was a puzzle. And Hyacinth hated puzzles. Well, no, in truth she loved them. Provided, of course, that she solved them.

  • But Hyacinth Bridgerton, who at ten should have known the least about kisses of anyone, just blinked thoughtfully, and said, " I think it's nice. If they're laughing now, they'll probably be laughing forever.

  • Hush up, minx. You're a funny one, but you're certainly more likable than unlikable.

  • Be careful what you wish for,her mind thundered.

  • And if you say that's because you lot barged into her home like a herd of mentally deficient sheep, I'm disowning all three of you.

  • You're in a rather odd mood today." I'm soaking wet, Eloise." No need to snap at me about it, I didn't force you to walk across town in the rain." It wasn't raining when I left,". There was something about a sibling that brought out the eight-year-old in a body. I'm sure the sky was gray," Clearly, she had a bit of the eight-year-old in her as well.

  • I shall have one, too," he told her. "So that you don't feel alone." She tried not to smile. "That is most generous of you." "I am quite certain it is my gentlemanly duty." "To eat cake?" "It is one of the more appealing of my gentlemanly duties," he allowed.

  • But she was already in. Gareth couldn't help but stand back in admiration. Hyacinth Bridgerton was clearly a natural born athlete. Either that or a cat burglar.

  • Most fiction series are written so that the reader can come in at any point and not feel lost, but if you can start at the beginning, why not?

  • My mother is convinced that yellow is a happy color and that a happy girl would get a husband.-Penelope Featherington

  • No, Belle needed him. He had to save her from a disastrous marriage. And then, he supposed, he'd simply marry her himself.John wasn't unaware that he was about to pull one of the greatest about-faces in history. He could only hope that Belle would understand that he had realized she'd had been right all along. People made mistakes, didn't they? After all, he wasn't some infallible storybook hero.

  • Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing or, more often, nothing at all.

  • But looking beautiful isn't, I think, as important as feeling beautiful,

  • No words for the passion. No words for the need.No words for the sheer epiphany of the moment.And so, on an otherwise unremarkable Friday afternoon, in the heart of Mayfair, in a quiet drawing room on Mount Street, Colin Bridgerton kissed Penelope Featherington.And it was glorious.

  • In three days," he continued, "I will be your husband. I will take a solemn vow to protect you until death do us part. Do you understand what that means?" "You'll save me from marauding minotaurs?

  • You are not going to waltz in here and distract me with a clever phrase and a beguiling smile." "You think my smile is beguiling?

  • I love you with everything I am, everything I've been, and everything I hope to be. I love you with my past, and I love you for my future. I love you for the children we'll have and for the years we'll have together. I love you for every one of my smiles and even more, for every one of your smiles.

  • He shook his head in wonder. "You are magnificent." "I keep telling everyone that," she said with a nonchalant shrug, "but you seem to be the only one to believe me.

  • Olivia: You didn't even know I was there! Harry: Excuse me, yes I did.

  • Interesting, he later reflected, was perhaps not the correct word.By the time he and Henry arrived back at the house for their midday meal-a scrumptious bowl of hot, sticky porridge-he had mucked out the stable stalls, milked a cow, been pecked by three separate hens, weeded a vegetable garden, and fallen into a trough.

  • To call that writing, madam, is an insult to quills and ink across the world.

  • I keep waiting for the day in which everyone who loves Downton Abbey will realize they were actually watching a historical romance novel.

  • It suddenly made sense. Only twice in his life had he felt this inexplicable, almost mystical attraction to a woman. He'd thought it remarkable, to have found two, when in his heart he'd always believed there was only one perfect woman out there for him. His heart had been right. There was only one.

  • And if that weren't bad enough, the next sound he heard was a loud click.The damned woman had locked him out. She'd taken all the food and locked him out.You'll pay for this! he yelled at the door.Do be quiet, came the muffled replyI'm eating.

  • Ellie fought the urge to stamp her footI meant it this time. Do you accept my apology?It appears, he said, raising his eyebrows, that you might do me bodily harm if I do not.Ungracious prig, she mutteredI am trying to apologize.And I, he said, am trying to accept.

  • They climbed up into the carriage and were on their way. Henry caught her bonnet on the doorframe as she was getting in, a circumstance which caused her to mutter most ungraciously under her breath. Dunford thought he heard her say, Bloody bleeding blooming bonnet, but he couldn't be certain.

  • Music was not so very different from mathematics. It was all just patterns and sequences. The only difference was that they hung in the air instead of on a piece of paper. Dancing was a grand equation. One side was sound, the other movement. The dancer's job was to make them equal.

  • Michael nodded tersely, eyeing a table across the room. It was empty. So empty. So joyfully, blessedly empty.He could picture himself a very happy man at that table."Not feeling very conversational this evening, are we?" Colin asked, breaking into his (admittedly tame) fantasies.

  • John shrugged. "It always seemed silly to me to desire a woman who cannot converse any better than a sheep."Belle leaned forward, her eyes glittering mischievously. "Really? I would have thought you'd prefer such a woman,considering your difficulty with polite conversation.""Touche, my lady. I cede this round to you.

  • He closed his eyes. The insides of his eyelids were a brownish black, not at all the same as the thick purple of the night. Darkness had so many colors. It was strange, that, and perhaps a little disquieting. But

  • Maybe she was a wallflower. There was no shame in that. Especially not if one enjoyed being a wallflower.

  • He smiled, and suddenly she knew that his words were true. Everything would be all right. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Tragedy couldn't coexist in a world with one of Colin's smiles.

  • It's only through sheer force and luck that she's yet to take over the world.

  • what a sad pair we are," she said. "Surely we can manage a conversation on a topic other than our respective terrible evenings.

  • She had been born for this man, and she had spent so many years trying to accept the fact that he had been born for someone else...

  • You have to live each hour as if it's your last and each day as if you were immortal. - Kate Sheffield

  • Suddenly it was too hard to be in his presence, too painful to know that he would belong to someone else.

  • It was heaven. Forget angels, forget St. Peter and glittering harpsichords. Heaven was a dance in the arms of one's true love.

  • I can't rave enough about Eloisa James. I'm simply in awe of her talent.

  • I thought you wanted food," she gasped. "I do," he murmured, tugging on the bodice of her dress. "But I want you more.

  • the unexpected moment [is] always sweeter.

  • She hated that she was still so desperate for a glimpse of him, but it had been this way for years.

  • He sucked his lips in an attempt not to laugh. "Aren't you Spanish?" She raised one arm in a salute. "Viva la Queen Isabella!" "I see. Then why are you speaking with a French accent?

  • Last time I was in London, I visited Number 5, Bruton Street, which is the address I gave to Violet Bridgerton, the matriarch of the Bridgerton clan in my novels. It was a bit disconcerting to learn that it's actually a pub.

  • I keep trying to write a bad boy and they always come out nice. I don't see the appeal of someone who is going to demean me in some way.

  • To this day, 'The Duke and I' remains particularly close to my heart; I felt it was the novel in which my writing took a huge leap forward.

  • In every life there is a turning point. A moment so tremendous, so sharp and clear that one feels as if one's been hit in the chest, all the breath knocked out, and one knows, absolutely knows without the merest hint of a shadow of a doubt that one's life will never be the same.

  • She needed him to be him. Even if he could not be hers.

  • I don't know whether to toss you through that window or shake your hand and say 'Well done'" Henry said in a tired voice.

  • I had to do something," she said. "I couldn't just sit and wait for life to happen to me any longer.

  • I vow to spend the rest of my life keeping your hands and feet warm.

  • Society is capricious and rewards the bad as often as the good. But it never rewards the quiet.

  • And, she was able to tell herself with some satisfaction, the man in question - one Colin Bridgerton - felt precisely the same way.... ....His earth shook, his heart leaped, and Penelope knew without a doubt that his breath was taken away as well. For a good ten seconds. Falling off a horse tended to do that to a man.

  • James - "Are you paying attention or just trying to make me look like an idoit?" Elizabeth - "Oh, I'm definately paying attention. If you look like an idiot it has nothing to do with me.

  • Don't settle. Know what you want and reach for it. And if you don't know what you want, be patient. The answers will come to you in time, and you may find that your heart s desire has been right under your nose all the while.

  • sometimes there are reasons for our fears that we can't quite explain. Sometimes it's just something we feel in our bones, something we know to be true, but would sound foolish to anyone else.

  • Above all else, be true to your heart. When you marry, whether it be a marquis or an estate manager (or both!), it will be for life. You must go where your heart leads and never forget that love is the most precious gift of all. Money and social status are poor substitutes for a warm, tender embrace, and there is little in life more fulfilling than the joy of loving and knowledge that you are loved in return.

  • No one knows as well as I how much nonsense is printed in books.

  • As his hands moved to his trousers, he saw that she was pulling the bedsheets over her. "Don't," he said, barely recognizing his own voice. Her eyes met his, and he said, "I'll be your blanket".

  • Will you be quiet?" he asked, smiling down at her. She nodded. He pretended to think about it. "I don't believe you/" She planted her hands on her hips, which had to be a ludicrous postition, naked as she was from the waist up. All right," he acceded, "but the only words I'll allow from your mouth are, 'Oh, Gareth,' and 'Yes, Gareth.' He lifted his finger. What about 'More, Gareth?'" He almost kept a straith face. "That will be acceptable

  • You have a mother?" He quirked a brow. "Did you think mine was some sort of divine birth? My father was a remarkable man, but even he was not that talented.

  • Daniel held himself very still, waiting for the wave of jealousy that never came. He was furious with the man who'd taken advantage of her innocence, but he did not feel jealous. He did not need to be her first, he realized. He simply needed to be her last. Her only.

  • The look Anthony shot at his sister was so comically malevolent Simon nearly laughed. He managed to restrain himself, but mostly just because he was fairly certain that any show of humor would cause Anthony's fist to lose its battle with his brain, with Simon's face emerging as the conflict's primary casualty.

  • It was one of those things that had to be experienced to be understood

  • Love works in mysterious ways,

  • Caroline, do you value your neck?" "Yes, I'm rather fond of it. Why?" "Because if you don't shut up, I'm going to wring it.

  • Where is he? Bridgerton!" he bellowed. Three chestnut heads swiveled in his direction. Simon stomped across the grass, murder in his eyes. "I meant the idiot Bridgerton." "That, I believe," Anthony said mildly, tilting his chin toward Colin, "would refer to you.

  • It has oft been said that physicians make the worst patients, but it is the opinion of This Author that any man makes a terrible patient. One might say it takes patience to be a patient, and heaven knows, the males of our species lack an abundance of patience.

  • ...I do not tell you often enough, dear Mother, how very grateful I am that I am yours. It is a rare parent who would offer a child such latitude and understanding. It is an even rarer one who calls a daughter friend. I do love you, dear Mama.

  • Tonight," he whispered, his voice hoarse and hot in her ear, "I will make you mine." -Simon to Daphne

  • You might wish to revisit your understanding of the word everything." Gregory turned to his mother. "Vocabulary and comprehension were never her strong suits." Violet rolled her eyes. "Every day I marvel that the two of you managed to reach adulthood." "Afraid we'd kill each other?" Gregory quipped. "No, that I'd do the job myself.

  • It was a damned good thing men couldn't have children. Gregory took no shame in admitting that the human race would have died out generations earlier.

  • The two of you together are a menace," Penelope remarked. "My aim in life," Lady Danbury announced, "is to be a menace to as great a number of people as possible, so I shall take that as the highest of compliments, Mrs. Bridgerton." "Why is it," Penelope wondered, "that you only call me Mrs. Bridgerton when you are opining in a grand fashion?" "Sounds better that way," Lady D said, punctuating her remark with a loud thump of her cane.

  • The only words I'll allow from your mouth are, 'Oh, Gareth,' and 'Yes, Gareth.'" "What about 'More, Gareth'?" "He almost kept a straith face. "That will be acceptable.

  • Not that I wish to give you any ammunition, but the sad fact of it is-most men are sheep. Where one goes, the rest will follow. And didn't you say you wished to be married?' 'Not to someone who follows you as the lead sheep.

  • Turn right up ahead," he directed. "It'll take us directly to my cottage." She did as he asked. "Does your cottage have a name?" "My Cottage." "I might have known," she muttered. He smirked. Quite a feat, in her opinion, since he looked sick as a dog. "I'm not kidding," he said. Sure enough, in another minute they pulled up in front of an elegant country house, complete with a small, unobtrusive sign in front reading, MY COTTAGE

  • Did you know I dream about your hair? I use to say it was the color of the sun at sunset, but I'm wrong. It's brighter than the sun, just as you are.

  • There were a lot of things in life to be afraid of, but strangeness ought not be among them.

  • There were only so many ways a man"?s heart could break, and he had a feeling his couldn"?t survive another puncture.

  • Happy endings are all I can do. I wouldn't know how to write anything else.

  • It was funny, he reflected later, how one's life could alter in an instant, how one minute everything could be a certain way, and the next it's simply ... not

  • A lot could happen in a week. Just look at the last one.

  • The ranks of society are once again filled with Ambitious Mamas, whose only aim is to see their Darling Daughters married off to Determined Bachelors

  • Don't look so upset," Hyacinth said, once it was just the two of them again. "You're quite a catch." He looked at her assessingly. "Is one meant to say such things quite so directly?" She shrugged. "Not to men one is trying to impress." "Touché, Miss Bridgerton." She sighed happily. "My three favorite words." Of that, he had no doubt.

  • He sighed, wondering how his life had been turned upside down by this woman in less than forty-eight hours. Correction: by this woman, a pig, and a rabbit.

  • Turner let his face fell into his hands. "I'm never going to touch her again", he moaned. "He's never going to touch me again!" they heard Miranda roar."Well,it doesn't look like you'll have much argument from your wife on that point", Olivia chirped.

  • He looks like a man.' 'How descriptive,' Susan said in a droll tone. 'Remind me never to advise you to seek work as a novelist.

  • Darling," he said distractedly,"about the moon..." "Yes?" "I don't think it matters whether you want it or not." "What are you talking about?" "The moon. I think it's yours." Victoria yawned, not bothering to open her eyes. "Fine. i'm glad to have it." "But--" Robert shook his head. He was growing fanciful. the moon didn't belong to his wife. It didn't follow her, protect her. It certainly didn't wink at anybody. But he stared out the window the rest of the way home, just in case

  • Besides," he said breezily, "were it not for misunderstandings, we would be sadly lacking in great literature." She looked at him questioningly. "Where would Romeo and Juliet be?" "Alive.

  • There was a huge difference between dislike and disregard.

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