“He looked as if he'd stepped straight off the cover of one of those romance novels she ordered from Amazon. com so she didn't have to be embarassed by some supercilious male clerk in the bookstore.”

“"Come on, then, Giac," said Suzy. "Last one to the top is a rotten sorceror."
She started off at a run, but paused after a few steps when Giac didn't immediately follow. He was looking puzzled.
"Come on!"
"But I already am a rotten sorceror," he said.”

“You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing.”

“A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance novel covers? The”

“She took a step and didn't want to take any more, but she did.”

“I can't imagine a romance novel published today where the hero rapes the heroine and she falls in love with him.”

“"What is this romance?" she mused.
"Ah, that’s the question. I’ve never come across a definition that satisfied me, though there are some very good ones"—he glanced in the direction of his books.
"It’s not altogether knowing the other person, perhaps—it’s ignorance," she hazarded.
"Some authorities say it’s a question of distance—romance in literature, that is—"
"Possibly, in the case of art. But in the case of people it may be—" she hesitated.”

“You have a very strange face," she said. "You're not really ugly." "Number four shipping clerk, working his way up." "Have you ever been in love?" "Love is for real people." "You sound real." "I dislike real people." "You dislike them?" "I hate them." We drank some more, not saying much. It continued to snow. Gertrude turned her head and stared into the crowd of people. Then she looked at me. "Isn't he handsome?" "Who?" "That soldier over there. He's sitting alone. He sits so straight. And he's got all his medals on.”

“As long as we have Netfix, Turner Classic Movies, Amazon, YouTube, and bookstores, there is no excuse ever to lack inspiration.”

“Visionary idealism is a male art form. The lesbian aesthete does not exist. But if there were one, she would have learned from the perverse male mind.”