E. L. James Quotations

I think women love a passionate love story.

All a writer wants is to be read, and people are so flattering and lovely. I mean, there are witches out there as well. But most are so kind.

If you've been married for 400 years, as I have, it's nice to experience first love again and you can vicariously through a book.

Yes, I'm a 'Twi-hard.' I became obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. I didn't watch television, I didn't go to the cinema. My friends would ring and say: 'What are you doing?' And I would say: 'I've just got to finish this chapter.'

Once you're in charge of your job, your house, your children, getting the food on the table, doing all of this, all of the time, it'd be nice for someone else to be in charge for a bit maybe.

Write for yourself. That's it. And write every day.

I never set out to do this - getting to No. 1 in the 'New York Times' bestseller list wasn't even a pipedream.

I value my anonymity. I'm happy to come in on the tube or the train and watch other people reading 'Fifty Shades.'

I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.

I really like clever men who challenge you.

I came up with a story and I wrote it.

I don't watch much British television at all. I mean, it's ironic because I used to work in it for years.

I think women love to read love stories.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my house and my Ugg boots and not washing sometimes, and getting back to writing.

I've worked in television all my life, but really I've always wanted to work in the movies.

Everyone's clamoring for the fourth book in the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy, which makes me laugh. Just the part of 'a fourth book in trilogy' that makes me laugh, not the clamoring for the next book.

Never trust a man who can dance.

I think you can only be truly mad at someone you really love.

It's very hard to grow up in a perfect family when you're not perfect.

I do not look at the world in terms of black and white - and I find people who do rather scary. I think it's all shades of grey.

Don't get your panties in such a twist... and give me back mine.

There's a very fine line between pleasure and pain. They are two sides of the same coin, one not existing without the other.

The best person to write for is yourself—and what better place to start than in a journal.

Any relationship that you have is about negotiation - anything - whether there is a written contract or not.

Men aren't really complicated. They are very simple, literal creatures. They usually mean what they say. And we spend hours trying to analyze what they've said, when really it's obvious.

A controlling man, surely a mythical creature?

I'm not a great writer.

People are talking about sex. They're talking about sex with their husbands. They're talking about sex with their girlfriends. They're talking about sex with their partners. And because of all of this communication, women are having much more intimate relationships, which is fantastic.

So you've just slept with him, given him your virginity, a man who doesn't love you. In fact, he has odd ideas about you, wants to make you some sort of kinky sex slave.

I think virgins are far more interesting to write about. If we've been around the block a few times, we know what to expect. Not so with virgins.

My inner goddes has her sequins on and is warming up to dance the rumba.

I cannot be with someone who takes pleasure in inflicting pain on me, someone who can't love me

The candle flame is too hot. It flickers and dances in the over-warm breeze, a breeze that brings no respite from the heat. Soft gossamer wings flutter to and fro in the dark, sprinkling dusty scaled in the circle of light. I'm struggling to resist, but I'm drawn. And then it's to bright, and I am flying too close to the sun, dazzled by the light, fried and melting from the heat, weary in my endeavers to stay airborn. I am so warm. The heat... It's stiffling, overpowering. It wakes me.

I don't think [Fifty Shades of Grey is] a model for anything. Except maybe in bed.

It's the fantasy of first love. If you've been married for 400 years, as I have, it's nice to experience first love again and you can vicariously through a book. And it is such a fantasy. It takes you away from doing the dishes and the laundry. I think of this as a contemporary romance rather than erotic fiction.

It's much easier to wear your pain on the outside.

Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with me. Perhaps I've spent too long in the company of my literary romantic heroes, and consequently my ideals and expectations are far too high.

Women basically want the same thing - a good passionate story, a great fantasy - and for our partners to do the laundry and the washing up.

God forbid that women have fantasies.

Language evolves and moves on. It is an organic thing. It is not stuck in an ivory tower, hung with expensive works of art.

Women basically want the same thing - a good passionate story, a great fantasy - and for our partners to do the laundry and the washing up.