Top 100 Lynn Painter Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “I wondered what she’d think if she knew the quote from Jerry McGuire-You complete me- flashed through my very soul as I watched her laugh.”

— Lynn Painter

52. “Hey, kiddo.” Helena looked over at me from the doorway that led to the kitchen as I practiced piano in the living room. I liked playing in the morning, and I liked playing in my fancy flowered pajamas with the matching silk slippers. It made practicing feel like an elegant pastime, like I was an erstwhile Austen character honing one of the skills that would make me a fearsome thing to behold.”

— Lynn Painter

53. “Everybody likes cats in sweaters.”

— Lynn Painter

54. “I wanted to skip down the hall yell-singing “Paper Rings.”

— Lynn Painter

55. “Wes was the good guy in the movie. Yes, he was funny and the life of the party, but he was also dependable and understanding and loyal. Even though i realized after prom that i didnt need him to be, he was a Mark Darcy.”

— Lynn Painter

56. “Yes, Emilie Hornby, I’m here to tell you that I’m a little obsessed with you. With this... With us.”

— Lynn Painter

57. “What do you mean, not your type? Because he’s not some character who writes poetry and knows what your favorite flower is?”

— Lynn Painter

58. “I remember everything about you, Em.”

— Lynn Painter

59. “How was this fair? The girl was wearing heavy makeup, a bedazzled catsuit, and a ridiculously huge bow smack-dab on the top of her head. She should’ve looked like Queen of the Clowns. But she looked cute. And the worst part was that she was unbelievably charming.”

— Lynn Painter

60. “Meteor shower tonight, if you’re interested. I’ve got Swisher, fyi.”

— Lynn Painter

61. “Mr. Right – the nice-guy, dependable version – could be waiting around the very next corner.”

— Lynn Painter

62. “Society – wrongly – expects a pretty girl to eat a salad and pick at her food, but you wolf down a burger like a person who’s been starved for weeks. And probably raised by wolves.”

— Lynn Painter

63. “She’d always assumed I was obsessed with love because I was hopelessly romantic. I never corrected her.”

— Lynn Painter

64. “Employee handbook, thou art a beotch.”

— Lynn Painter

65. “Don’t cry, Liz.” He looked sad when he said it, like he wanted to cry too. Then he said, “Wait here.”

— Lynn Painter

66. “It was true love, Ted. I looked over, saw this guy, and I totally lost my mind. I know he’s loud and in-your-face, but whenever I look at him I feel a little weak-kneed. And when I drive him – forget about it. He’s fast and wild and a little unruly, and I can feel his throaty rumbles all through my body when I bury that gas pedal. That beast has forever ruined me for all other vehicles.”

— Lynn Painter

67. “My life is changing and moving forward, and she’s being left behind with my childhood.”

— Lynn Painter

68. “Because there were no ties with Wes, no connections to anything painful. Prom dress shopping, on the other hand, was layered in melancholic bindings that made me feel a world of things I didn’t want to feel.”

— Lynn Painter

69. “In my wildest dreams, I wouldn’t have imagined the return of Michael Young.”

— Lynn Painter

70. “I have no secrets,” he said, and I wondered if that were true.”

— Lynn Painter

71. “Was it easier, he wondered? I felt like I couldn’t answer that question because I refused to let it get easier. I thought about her a lot – every single day – and if I started doing that less, surely it’d get easier. But the easier it got, the more she’d disappear, right?”

— Lynn Painter

72. “And as we ran over the snow-packed pavement, I felt magically, wonderfully not like myself. I was the manic pixie dream girl in a movie, a character created solely to be uncomplicated, unexpected, and utterly unpredictable.”

— Lynn Painter

73. “Your fart books, hello? I need some relief, ma’am. Where are the books on gastrointestinal emergencies?”

— Lynn Painter

74. “There was something about his casual confirmation of my sanity, my normalcy, that healed a tiny little piece of me.”

— Lynn Painter

75. “Is that song about a girl obsessed with her neighbor?”

— Lynn Painter

76. “Oh my God, you’re too cool to write with ketchup?”

— Lynn Painter

77. “Yeah, I definitely had perverted librarian issues.”

— Lynn Painter

78. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.” “Happy? Excited? Hopeful?” I wanted to skip down the hall yell-singing “Paper Rings.”

— Lynn Painter

79. “His eyes had been soft and hot all at the same time, intense and sweet, and I wished there was a way to archive the memory so it could never be lost.”

— Lynn Painter

80. “Okay, don’t laugh. I’m looking for The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn.”

— Lynn Painter

81. “But you’ll always wonder if you should’ve talked to him if you don’t.”

— Lynn Painter

82. “Then she ‘noticed’ my bloody knee and said I must’ve been so concerned about helping her that I hadn’t even realized I was bleeding. She cleaned me up, put on a Band-Aid, and gave me a Fudgesicle. Made me feel like a damned hero for face-planting on the sidewalk.” I laughed and looked up at the sky, my heart full. “That story is so on-brand for my mom.”

— Lynn Painter

83. “You know, because you were remarkably unworthy of celebration.”

— Lynn Painter

84. “Bottom line – chick flicks are laughingly unrealistic. Like, ‘Oh, these two are so different and hate each other so much, but – wait. Are they so different after all?”

— Lynn Painter

85. “He kissed me like he was trying to prove something.”

— Lynn Painter

86. “My breath got stuck in my chest as he moved his thumb just under the tattoo – ever so softly – while he was so close to me that I couldn’t remember what the world looked like beyond his face.”

— Lynn Painter

87. “His eyes roamed over my cheeks and forehead and chin, and it occurred to me that the two of us were seeing that moment in entirely different ways. I was desperately hopeful that he would remember it all the next day, and he was memorizing every moment to look back upon fondly.”

— Lynn Painter

88. “In an instant, I’d lost my grieving buddy and gained a woman who was nothing like the mom I cried for every night.”

— Lynn Painter

89. “Listen, Tiny Bartender.′ He grabbed the plate of nachos and slid it in front of her, because they both knew she loved selecting the first chip. ‘You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love you three times. Please tell me my hands are cold so we can get on with our lives already.”

— Lynn Painter

90. “I swiped at my cheeks and tried outrunning the sadness, but it stayed with me all the way home.”

— Lynn Painter

91. “He let go of my arms and I saw him flex his fingers before his hands dropped to his sides. Seriously? He was flexing his hand like he was Mr. Darcy at freaking Netherfield? He gave me a dickish smile and said, “How dare I?”

— Lynn Painter

92. “Can you pretty please wear the Chucks?”

— Lynn Painter

93. “I kept waiting for the ‘closure’ I was supposed to feel, but I was starting to think it would never come.”

— Lynn Painter

94. “We foolishly assumed our offspring wouldn’t suck down food like sows.” “You know what happens when you assume, right?”

— Lynn Painter

95. “I just didn’t think anyone watched those cheesy movies.”

— Lynn Painter

96. “I swear to God I will gut you with a vegetable peeler if you tell anyone.”

— Lynn Painter

97. “Before I hit play, I paused to offer Wes an end. He took it, and we listened in silence until we made the turn into the school parking lot.”

— Lynn Painter

98. “The truth was, I liked talking about my mom. Bringing her up in casual conversation-putting words about her out into the universe- felt like keeping a piece of her here with me, even though she had been gone so long already.”

— Lynn Painter

99. “There was something sweet in the way they moved from foes to friends, from athletic rivals to simple teenage boys, the minute that the metaphorical whistle blew the game over.”

— Lynn Painter

100. “Anything you want, Buxbaum. As long as I’m with you, it will the perfect day.”

— Lynn Painter