Nora Roberts Quotations

Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.

I don't think you can write - at least not well - if you don't love stories, love the written word.

And each book has to receive your best effort every single time. No slacking.

In the summer of 80, Silhouette bought my first book.

I don't believe for one moment you can write well what you wouldn't read for pleasure.

Certainly the plagiarism, and dealing with the fallout of it, was the most difficult thing I've ever faced since I started writing.

Every writer has to figure out what works best - and often has to select and discard different tools before they find the one that fits.

Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other.

Aren't most romance heros, or heros in fiction of any kind, generally superior to real men? Same goes for heroines and real women.

You don't find time to write. You make time. It's my job.

One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.

I long for typical days, but rarely get them any more.

My own sense of family, where I came from and what I made for myself is an important part of my life.

I find I use the Internet more and more. It's just an invaluable tool. I do most of my research on the Net now - and certainly do the bulk of my communicating through email.

I would hope that my writing's cleaner than it was when I started.

I don't base any character on a real person, and really don't do composites either. I make them up.

I believe strongly in writing groups such as Romance Writers Of America that offer support, information and networking.

I don't fiddle or edit or change while I'm going through that first draft.

I'd always loved to read - and come from a family of readers - but I never thought about writing as a career.

I read a lot - and I read a variety of genres.

I've gotten to know a number of readers from being online, and really treasure the time I've spent with them.

I decided to write category romance as I'd recently discovered them, and enjoyed them.

I do indeed write on the road. My laptop goes with me everywhere.

I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.

If you write in category, you write knowing there's a framework, there are reader expectations.

Actually, I find it great fun to develop family series with lots of characters.

Mary Stewart will always be my goddess. I can pick up one of her early books - one I've read a dozen times - and still slide right into the story.

The most important aspect of any story, to me, is character.

For over a year I continued to submit mss, and have them rejected - the last few with rejection letters indicated the story was pretty good, but I was American.

I said, you're the beat of my heart, the breath in my body, the light in my soul.

First, I really believe that since writer is a term without genre, a good one should be able to write believable male and female characters.

Now, I'll say this. I've never taking a course on writing. I've never read a book on writing. This isn't something that would work for me.

I'll usually work until about four or five - take a short break mid day to run through the email that's come in or read and post on the boards.

know what you want, work to get it, then value it once you have it.

Memories are nice little possessions. As long as you don't ignore the present when you take them out to play.

Feeling too much is a hell of a lot better than feeling nothing.

If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

Some things in life are out of your control. You can make it a party or a tragedy.

We're all victims of what life deals out. It's how we handle it that's important.

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

People and relationships never stop being a work in progress

We make destiny with every turn, every choice.

You spend your life getting walked on, you learn to recognize the tread.

The wounded recognized the wounded.

Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live.

Half full, half empty, what the hell difference does it make? If there's something in the damn glass, drink it.

If you don't ask, the answer is always no.

Do you know how many ways love can hit you? So it makes you happy, or miserable? It makes you sick in the belly or hurt in the heart. It makes everything brighter and sharper, or it blurs all the edges. It makes you feel like a king or a fool. Every way love can hit you, it's hit me when it comes to you.

Life--you have to live it as it comes.

Sometimes a wind comes up, blows you off course. You’re not ready for it, but if you’re lucky, you end up in a more interesting place than you’d planned.

You have to believe in it to get it...

Grab it while you can because tomorrow could suck you dry.

We all look. The lucky find.

A relationship isn't something that has to be created in a day or perfected in a day. Part of the game is to keep working on it. It's something that'll always be just a little flawed.

I saw you standing on a veranda you'd built with your own hands. And I loved you.

Today should always be outlawed in favor of tomorrow

Evil cannot and will not be vanquished by evil. Dark will only swallow dark and deepen. The good and the light are the keenest weapons.

Life is like a moustache. It can be wonderful or terrible. But it always tickles.

I’m not going anywhere.” Gently, he stroked her back, cradled her head. Was there anything more astounding or more frightening to a man, he wondered, than a strong woman in tears? “I’ve been right here all along. I love you, Eve, almost more than I can stand.” “I need you. I can’t help it. I don’t want to.” “I know.” He eased back, tucking a hand under her chin to lift her face to his. “We’re going to have to deal with it.” He kissed one wet cheek, then the other. “I really can’t do without you.

She's in love, and that makes her strong. She'll need to be." "What makes you strong, Mia?" "Purpose. Love never worked for me.

In all the illusions, you're the only truth that I need

Love is not enough. But, it is the rock on which all else stands.

It's hard to resist a bad boy who's a good man.

Shall I tell you what rock and roll is, Johnno, from someone who doesn't perform, but observes? It's restless and rude. It's defiant and daring. It's a fist shaken at age. It's a voice that often screams out questions because the answers are always changing. The very young play it because they're searching for some way to express their anger or joy, their confusion and their dreams. Once in a while, and only once in a while, someone comes along who truly understands, who has the gift to transfer all those needs and emotions into music.

You got used to running things on your own." "What could he do about it when he's in Iraq and the car breaks down in Kansas?" Beckett gave her a long, quiet look. "I'm not in Iraq." "No, and it has to be said, I'm not in Kansas anymore." She lifted her hands, then let them fall. "It's not that I've forgotten how to be a couple, but that my experience in being part of one is different from yours. Maybe from most people's. And I've been on my own a long time." "Now you're not. I'm not fighting a war, and I'm right here." Needed to be here, he realized, with her.

You can't edit a blank page

squats are a form of torture designed by people who don’t need to do squats in the first place

I need to write to be happy.

And yet, anything real, anything strong, was never easy. She'd been taught from an early age that the things that mattered most were the hardest to obtain.

I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page.

Everything I know, I learned from dogs.

Good fiction creates its own reality.

When somebody walks out, it leaves a hole in you. Some people fill it up, the good and the bad, and get on that way. Some people leave it open, maybe long enough to heal, maybe too long, picking at it now and then so it doesn't heal all the way.

Do you see that out there? The strange, unfamiliar light? It's called the sun. Let's go get us a little.

I have no idea why it apparently takes three grown men to cook some hamburgers. One to cook, one to kibbitz, and one to insult the other two.

Ireland is a land of poets and legends, of dreamers and rebels. All of these have music woven through and around them. Tunes for dancing or for weeping, for battle or for love.

I don't like the idea of you shivering unless I cause it. Stay warm." ----Roarke, Naked In Death

I do not feel obliged in my reading. I read to be entertained and to relax, and to go into another world, not because it's good for me.

You can fix anything but a blank page.

And since I’m marrying into the Quartet, I have certain privileges and duties. If you’re sleeping with Laurel—” “I’m not sleeping with Laurel. We’re dating.” “Right, and the two of you are just going to hold hands, admire the moon, and sing camp songs.” “For a while. Minus the singing.

Don't give up on your own happy-evers.

There was nothing like a Saturday - unless it was the Saturday leading up to the last week of school and into summer vacation. That of course was all the Saturdays of your life rolled into one big shiny ball.

When something comes easy, you usually let it go the same way.

Broken hearts healed. Maybe the cracks were always there, like thin scars, but they healed. People lived and worked, laughed and ate, walked and talked with those cracks For many, even the scars healed and they loved again.

Roarke: You'd enjoy flying more if you'd learn the controls. Eve: I'd rather pretend I'm on the ground. Roarke: And how many vehicles have you wrecked, had blown up, or destroyed in the last, oh, two years? Eve: Think about that, then imagine it happening when I'm at the wheel at thirty thousand feet. Roarke: Good point. I'll do the flying.

Happily ever after?" "If justice doesn't triumph and love doesn't make the circle in entertainment fiction, what's the point? Real life sucks too often.

I want you to take note, Commander, that turning in my badge would be like cutting off my arm. But if it comes down to a choice between the job and my marriage, then I lose the arm.

The security officer smiled and said, ‘Good afternoon, ma’am,’ to me before I gave him ID.” “It’s a sick world, Eve.” He resisted taking her hand for another squeeze. “A sick, sad world.

I'll walk you back,"he said with such apparently boundless amiability that Diana wanted to deck him. "That isn't necessary," she began as her hand was clasped by his. "I suppose I could walk ten paces behind or ten paces in front." As she let out a frustrated breath, Caine grinned down at her. "You're not angry because we exchanged a friendly kiss? After all, we're family." "There was nothing friendly or familial about it," Diana muttered. "No," he lifted her hand to his lips, then lightly nipped at her knuckle. "Maybe we should try again.

She was singed, bleeding, bruised, and furiously alive.

I hope that's true, because I figured out why I'd never finished it, what I was waiting for. I was waiting for you, Clare. For them. For us. I want to finish it up for you, for them, for us.

Some romantic you are," Caine complained as he pushed the door open with his back."Whatever happened to women who liked to be swept off their feet?" "They got dropped," Diana said flatly.

Couples take care of each other, Clare, that's what makes them a couple. And couples tell each other when something happens that scares them.

Do you always get away with the outrageous?" "Mostly. Are you always s beautiful in the morning?" "Don't waste your charm." "It's all right, I have more.

An eye for an eye.” “That's a revenge thing, right? From some play.” “The Bible, darling. The Lord of all plays.

My apartment's only about a block away." "Isn't that handy." "Fate," he countered as he took a seat on the sofa and made himself at home. "Fantasic, isn't it?" "One day very soon, I'm going to tell you what you can do with that fate of yours.

You're the woman in my life,” he said. “Another thing about me and my brothers? We look after the women in our lives. We don't know any other way.

I've wanted to be with you when I didn't have the right to.

You have heard the expression 'love is blind'" "I think it's bullshit. Lust dazzles, sure, at least for the short term. But love clears the vision. You see better, sharper, because you feel more that you did before

That's possible to likely. We're involved, you and me. I'm telling you what I'm going to do because I figure when people are involved, when they matter, they tell each other.