Top 100 Lynn Painter Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “When things don’t go as planned, we can either pout and behave like a reticent child, or take some time to reconsider our choices. Ruminate over what we’ve done in our past, and how best to move forward in our future.”

— Lynn Painter

2. “Be brave enough to go big.”

— Lynn Painter

3. “I had always been a “good” kid, the kind of kid that parents didn’t have to worry about. My homework was always done, I never talked back, I always followed the rules, and I happily went along with what everyone else wanted. In a normal nuclear family, that kind of stuff made parents proud, right? But in a family such as min, it made me forgettable.”

— Lynn Painter

4. “You suppose? What on earth could she possibly be lacking? Do you want bigger boobs or something? Is she not – ” “She’s not you.” “What?” “She. Isn’t. You.”

— Lynn Painter

5. “My Liz was fired-up, and it was perfection.”

— Lynn Painter

6. “Now, mind you, I just wanted to crawl off into a corner and die from my horrific battle wounds. But if Mrs. Buxbaum needed me, I was damn well going to help.”

— Lynn Painter

7. “Liz Buxbaum had always been my secret. She was the incredible thing I’d known about but everyone else seemed to miss. The treasure hidden in plain sight, the fortune of a lifetime that was somehow only visible to me.”

— Lynn Painter

8. “He swallowed again, his throat moving hard before he said, “I love you. I know I screwed everything up and I know we were going to keep it casual, but I somehow fell in love with you. I can’t believe it myself, but in spite of our lifetime of hatred for each other, I am completely lost without you in my life.”

— Lynn Painter

9. “I’m more of a tea guy.” “Lying again?” “I seriously drink four to five cups of Sleepytime every day.”

— Lynn Painter

10. “He should’ve stayed put like a good husband.”

— Lynn Painter

11. “I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn you cheeks pink with just a word. Then I fell in love with you.”

— Lynn Painter

12. “And it’s been killing me.” He took a step closer, which pressed me against the side of my car. “I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn your cheeks pink with just a word. Then I fell in love with you.”

— Lynn Painter

13. “Sometimes we get so tied up in our idea of what we think we want that we miss out on the amazingness of what we could actually have.”

— Lynn Painter

14. “But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” – 10 Things I Hate About You.”

— Lynn Painter

15. “You look best when you’re you.”

— Lynn Painter

16. “I did what I had to. All is fair in love and parking.”

— Lynn Painter

17. “This wasn’t about boys and girls and love and attraction, this was about a human soul needing to feel seen.”

— Lynn Painter

18. “I could say these unfiltered things to him because he didn’t care. Wes Bennett knew what a mess I was underneath it all, and there was a little bit of joy in knowing he saw the real me. Freedom.”

— Lynn Painter

19. “He had kissed her long and good. We got banned from the pool forever that day, but every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled.” – The Sandlot.”

— Lynn Painter

20. “Enemies-to-lovers – it’s our trope, Buxbaum.”

— Lynn Painter

21. “I wouldn’t run through a train station for Michael. But I would do it for Wes.”

— Lynn Painter

22. “My inheritance was the knowledge that love is always in the air, always a possibility, and always worth it.”

— Lynn Painter

23. “A girl will never forget the first boy she likes.” – He’s Just Not That into You “But she’ll also never forget the first boy she hates.” – Liz Buxbaum.”

— Lynn Painter

24. “Wes: Make sure you add “Someone Like You” to the Wes and Liz playlist.”

— Lynn Painter

25. “You get what I mean. On a normal day when you’re feeling less than positive, force yourself to change your thinking. Instead of ‘It sucks that I have to go to school,’ think ‘It’s such a nice day that maybe after school I will recline the seat of my truck and read a good book while the breeze still smells like springtime.”

— Lynn Painter

26. “Also – thanks to Taylor Swift, for writing songs that feel like books.”

— Lynn Painter

27. “You’re not as vile as I thought you were.” – 10 Things I Hate About You.”

— Lynn Painter

28. “Liz Buxbaum was killing me softly and there was nothing I could do to ease the pain.”

— Lynn Painter

29. “I know that I’m the only one who truly cares about my happiness, so I make it a priority.”

— Lynn Painter

30. “It seemed to me that because of things like car accidents and lost loves, life and death and broken hearts, we should grab every moment and absolutely devour the good parts. Wouldn’t she want that? For me to ad-lib my life instead of living by some typed-in-twelve-point-Courier-New script?”

— Lynn Painter

31. “My favourite thing about music... was that it softened the edges of the world.”

— Lynn Painter

32. “You’re late.” “You’re stunning.” “You’re forgiven.” – Pretty Woman.”

— Lynn Painter

33. “Instead of handing it over, I tossed it onto the floor and said, “I keep telling Mr. Wrong Number I don’t need him anymore but he just won’t let me go.” He tossed his phone beside mine and rolled on top of me. “Can you blame him? When you find your perfect Misdial, you can’t let her go.”

— Lynn Painter

34. “Charm and intrigue can only get you so far, Libby Loo. Those things always disappear, which is why you never, ever choose the bad boy.”

— Lynn Painter

35. “Love is patient, love is kind, love means slowly losing your mind.” – 27 Dresses.”

— Lynn Painter

36. “So you think that two enemies – in the real world – can magically get over their differences and fall madly in love?”

— Lynn Painter

37. “I just smiled and shrugged as “New Year’s Day” by Taylor Swift came on.”

— Lynn Painter

38. “Life pressed forward with a burning velocity that left all of the beautifully-pressed details quickly forgotten.”

— Lynn Painter

39. “How positively scandalous of you, Elizabeth.”

— Lynn Painter

40. “I knew nothing about Nick Stark – other than what he liked to read, what he listened to, what he smelled like, where he worked, how his laugh sounded when he was sleepy over the phone – and he was probably the jerk I’d always thought him to be.”

— Lynn Painter

41. “Why was I wasting my life trying to live up to the ridiculous expectations that I was setting for myself?”

— Lynn Painter

42. “Music made everything better.”

— Lynn Painter

43. “I fell in love with you on Valentine’s day, Emilie, but I need more than just seven minutes.”

— Lynn Painter

44. “Her place in his heart was gone, and she only lived in his head now.”

— Lynn Painter

45. “Please don’t ever become a stranger Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere –.”

— Lynn Painter

46. “I didn’t wake up with a gasp like in the movies, though that might’ve made me feel better. Instead I woke up with a sad resignation as the song continued its soft, solemn loop.”

— Lynn Painter

47. “I stared at them, the picture-perfect couple, as Taylor Swift made my soul ache. Please don’t ever become a stranger Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere –.”

— Lynn Painter

48. “When I’m around you, I kind of feel like I’m on drugs. Not that I do drugs. Unless you do drugs, in which case, I do them all the time. All of them.”

— Lynn Painter

49. “Just because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn’t mean she’s your soul mate.” – 500 Days of Summer.”

— Lynn Painter

50. “Here’s how it usually went: I would see a cute guy, daydream about him for weeks and totally build him up in my mind to be my one-and-only soul mate.”

— Lynn Painter