3 authors share their favorite quotes from romances
We asked three Montlake Romance authors — Tiffany Snow, Laurin Wittig and Camilla Monk — about their favorite quote or line from a romance novel that they wish someone would say to them.
Tiffany Snow, author of Shadow of a Doubt
"In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live." — Robert Kincaid, The Bridges of Madison County
A tragic love story, but one of the most poignant I've ever read: Francesca and Robert.
Someone recently asked me if I believed in soul mates. As a romance writer, you'd expect my answer to be a resounding "Yes." In fiction, they do exist. Maybe that's one of the draws that keeps us picking up romance novel after romance novel.
In real life, though, I think sometimes telling someone they're your "soul mate" can produce unrealistic expectations and a lot of pressure on that person. I've always felt that people shouldn't be dependent on someone else for their own happiness. To truly be content and happy in a relationship, you should first be whole and happy by yourself.
A quote such as Robert's to Francesca fulfills that dream of being someone's one-and-only soul mate. But I also think that everyone has many possible partners, all of whom could provide different levels of contentment and happiness. Is that romantic? Maybe not. But perhaps more realistic. Unmet expectations can destroy a relationship, so I believe it's best to go into it with more expectations for yourself than for your partner.
In my series, The Tangled Ivy Trilogy, the main character — Ivy — begins as a damaged soul. Yet as the series progresses, finds herself and her strength. The hero — Devon — is also damaged and cynical. While they do help each other, ultimately they have to make their own choices and come to terms with who they are before their relationship can become permanent. Do they help each other move past their respective issues? Of course they do, but not in way that makes them co-dependent. Instead, it strengthens them as individuals before they come together to form a new whole. Like Alanis Morissette said, "I believe that one and one make two," not two halves make a whole.
About Shadow of a Doubt:
In book two, Ivy is healing and moving on from her past. The ways she is dependent on Devon become clear to her and she realizes she's strong enough to be his equal—her own whole person. And as for Devon, he begins to understand that it's okay to be vulnerable and to need someone. Love doesn't mean never having to say you're sorry—it means being unselfish enough to do what's best for the other person. The epitome of soulmates? Perhaps. And also a path to a love that lasts.
Laurin Wittig, author of Highlander Redeemed
"Glendruid witch," Dominic said, kissing Meg's fingertips, "you healed my body, my heart, and my soul, and then you stole them from me one kiss at a time. With or without heirs, I will have no other wife but you." — Dominic le Sabre in Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell
When I read this book years ago — before I ever wrote my own — I fell in love not only with Dominic, but the entire genre of mystical medieval Scottish romances. The strength of Meg facing an arranged marriage in order to prevent war, a curse that hasn't been lifted in a thousand years and the unlikely love that grew between these two who should be foes, hooked me and melted my heart. But then, if someone said this to me, I'd be his forever!
"With you, I liked myself better. With you I found a purpose and a focus that had always been missing from my life. With you, I found…" She blinked and determined to get it all said. "With you I found my heart. You are my heart." — Scotia MacAlpin in Highlander Redeemed
I have to confess that this is how I've felt about my husband since our third date (which was only two days after our first date), and I think he would say the same thing about me, even though he's more of a show-his-love kind of guy (like Duncan!). With Scotia MacAlpin I got to explore my inner brat, and I got to watch as she found her way, her strength, her calling and her hard-won Happy Ever After with the ever-patient, except when she pushed him too far, Duncan. And I got to write these words for her to say to the love of her life. It's good to be a romance writer!
About Highlander Redeemed:
Highlander Redeemed is the third and final book in bestselling and award-winning author Laurin Wittig's fantastical and sweeping Guardians of the Targe series. Scotia MacAlpin, the difficult, self-absorbed, impulsive youngest cousin, has caused trouble that even she can't talk her way out of this time. Duncan of Dunlairig, who has watched over Scotia since they were both children, is set the task of protecting the clan from any more of her troublemaking while the rest of the clan prepares for war. Determined to keep her and their clan safe, Duncan keeps Scotia busy and focused by secretly training her to become the warrior she yearns to be, promising her he'll let her fight for her clan if she can prove herself a trustworthy and skilled warrior. But the real test of her skills may come when he needs her help—and her long-forgotten heart.
Camilla Monk, author of Spotless
"Tu me tues. Tu me fais du bien."
Translation: "You kill me. You make me feel good."
This line is taken from Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima mon amour, both a book and a movie relating bits of conversations between two lovers about to part ways after a torrid affair. It's a form of raw and direct poetry — the short and coarse sonorities of the French language probably help this atmosphere — and while it is fashionable nowadays in France to express absolute disdain for Duras and her work, I've been in love with her writing since seeing The Lover (L'amant) as a teen. It's almost a stretch to qualify her books as "romance," although she does write about love and sexuality, but her blunt, sensory writing resonates with me. I'm fascinated by the disconcertingly simple way she bares her characters to the bone, and the fact that in her books, you can hear the silences as loud as the words.
At this point, you are legitimately allowed to wonder how someone writing about a naïve, romance novels-addicted nerd and an OCD-ridden hit man can draw from a French figure of the "Nouveau Roman" reveling in broken, disfigured love stories.
I can (sort of) explain.
While most of Spotless is a whacky adventure with good old-fashioned jamesbondey action, there are pauses in the book, when the noise surrounding Island and March fades away, time slows down, and we're getting glimpses of all those tiny cracks and uncertainties that make the characters and their budding relationship. I think Duras' style definitely influenced me when I was writing such scenes: I'd use shorter sentences, focus on the physical sensations and include very little, if any, dialogue between them. Chemistry needs no words, I believe, and I like the idea that the attraction between two people can be instinctual, a kind of quiet "coup de foudre."
So yup, I would love to be told such simple words as "Tu me tues. Tu me fais du bien." It's cryptic, intimate, almost bruising, with those harsh T's. I like that. That's how love sounds to me.
About Spotless:
Island Chaptal—nerdy IT engineer by day, romance novel junkie by night—just walked into her messy New York apartment to find Mr. Right waiting for her. No, wait…Mr. Clean.
A gentleman professional killer with a bad case of OCD and zero tolerance for unsorted laundry, March isn't there to kill her…yet. He wants the diamond her late mother stole for a sinister criminal organization. Island agrees to help him find it, facing the kind of adversaries who dismember first and ask questions later. Good thing she's got March to show her the ropes. And the guns. And the knives.
The buttoned-up Island is soon having a blast racing from Paris to Tokyo following the clues in her mother's will, and for the first time, she's ready to get close to someone. But falling for a hit man may be the very definition of loving dangerously.