Top 480 Quotes & Sayings by Nora Roberts

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

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

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.

Every single book is a challenge.

I need to write to be happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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 loved the process of writing.

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

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

The wounded recognized the wounded.

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

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.

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

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

Courage comes in different forms. There's strength--that's the muscle. But love's the heart. When you put them together, you can do anything.

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

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.

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

People and relationships never stop being a work in progress

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

We make destiny with every turn, every choice.

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

You have to believe in it to get it.

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

Laying a hand on his heart, she timed its beats to her own. And knew the truest magic was there.

Love birds don't always sing pretty tunes.

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

I promised myself that no matter where I went, what I did, I'd never take anything for granted again.

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.

Good fiction creates its own reality.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

You can't edit a blank page

We all look. The lucky find.