Top 500 Rainbow Rowell Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “Why did you tell me it was just a kiss?” she asked, waiting for her voice to break. “I don’t even care about that other girl. I mean, I do, but not as much. Why was your first instinct to tell me that what happened between you and me didn’t matter? And why should I believe you now when you say that it did? Why should I believe anything you say?”

— Rainbow Rowell

202. “She’s like Eeyore if Eeyore hung out with goats all the time instead of letting Pooh and Piglet cheer him up.”

— Rainbow Rowell

203. “When she sat down to write, she didn’t have to wade back into the story slowly, waiting to get used to the temperature.”

— Rainbow Rowell

204. “It had taken years to put themselves back together, and so what if some things didn’t get put back in the right place? At least they could hold themselves up.”

— Rainbow Rowell

205. “Maybe I don’t have that sort of love in me – maybe I’m defective.”

— Rainbow Rowell

206. “It’s like John Lennon writing with... Taylor Swift instead of Paul McCartney.”

— Rainbow Rowell

207. “She heard the very beginning of a smile in his voice – a fetal smile – and it very nearly killed her.”

— Rainbow Rowell

208. “I know that things will only get better if good people fight for what’s important.”

— Rainbow Rowell

209. “Ophelia was bonkers, right? And Juliet was what, a sixth-grader?”

— Rainbow Rowell

210. “But if you didn’t know about magic, if you were born Normal or just ignorant, and then you saw some magic – if you witnessed a miracle with your own eyes – would you just leave it be? If you got a glimpse into a secret world, would you pretend it hadn’t happened? Or would you spend the rest of your life trying to find a doorway?”

— Rainbow Rowell

211. “Smiling is confusing, she thought. This is why I don’t do it.”

— Rainbow Rowell

212. “I don’t want to go back any further. I don’t want to miss any of the rest.”

— Rainbow Rowell

213. “She wasn’t,” Heather said, crying now. “Pugs are bred to be useless. We have to take her to the vet.”

— Rainbow Rowell

214. “Because it doesn’t matter to me, Park. If you like me, she said, I swear to God, nothing else matters.”

— Rainbow Rowell

215. “But Park’s parents loved each other. They kissed each other on the mouth, no matter who was watching. What were the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back?”

— Rainbow Rowell

216. “You look like you, he said, you with the volume turned up.”

— Rainbow Rowell

217. “Or maybe, he thought now, he just didn’t recognize all those other girls. The way a computer drive will spit out a disk if it doesn’t recognize the formatting. When he touched Eleanor’s hand, he recognized her. He knew.”

— Rainbow Rowell

218. “The other kids might hate Eleanor for being big and weird, but they weren’t going to hate on her for having a broken family and a broke-down house. That was kind of the rule around here.”

— Rainbow Rowell

219. “It was nice to meet you,” Levi said, and you’d have to really know Levi to know that he didn’t mean it.”

— Rainbow Rowell

220. “The next night, Lincoln parked his Corolla right next to The Courier’s front door. I’m here, he thought. Find me. Follow me. Make this inevitable.”

— Rainbow Rowell

221. “I’ll cross the sky for you.”

— Rainbow Rowell

222. “That’s what people say – ‘it’s not goodbye’ – when they’re too afraid to face what they’re really feeling. I’m not going to see you tomorrow, Park – I don’t know when I’ll see you again. That deserves more than ’it’s not goodbye.”

— Rainbow Rowell

223. “Things she knew now, that she hadn’t known two hours ago: Park was covered with skin. Everywhere.”

— Rainbow Rowell

224. “But the explanations fell apart in her hands. Everything true was too hard to write – he was too much to lose. Everything she felt for him was too hot to touch.”

— Rainbow Rowell

225. “I’m not going anywhere, Noel.” “You are, and it’s okay. Just... I need you to take me with you.”

— Rainbow Rowell

226. “I lean into him, because I’m cold and he’s always warm. And because I like to remind him that I’m not afraid of him.”

— Rainbow Rowell

227. “And the thing about nerd culture being mainstream culture now means that there’s no place to just be a nerd among other nerds – without being reminded that you’re the nerd.”

— Rainbow Rowell

228. “You don’t know what it really means to crawl into someone else’s life and stay there. You can’t see all the ways you’re going to get tangled, how you’re going to bond skin to skin. How the idea of separating will feel in five years, in ten – in fifteen. When Georgie thought about divorce now, she imagined lying side by side with Neal on two operating tables while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems.”

— Rainbow Rowell

229. “I like your glasses,” he said. “I like your Simon Snow T-shirts. I like that you don’t smile at everyone, because then, when you smile at me... Cather.” He kissed her mouth. “Look at me.” She did. “I choose you over everyone.”

— Rainbow Rowell

230. “I am going to die kissing Simon Snow. Aleister Crowley, I’m living a charmed life.”

— Rainbow Rowell

231. “Beautiful. Breathtaking. Like the person in a Greek myth who makes one of the gods stop caring about being a god.”

— Rainbow Rowell

232. “God, she wanted to tackle him and roll around in him like a cat in a field of daisies.”

— Rainbow Rowell

233. “Because being assaulted with maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people.”

— Rainbow Rowell

234. “Go on, then,” he says. “Carry on, Simon.”

— Rainbow Rowell

235. “Love. Purpose. Those are the things that you can’t plan for. Those are the things that just happen. And what if they don’t happen? Do you spend your whole life pining for them? Waiting to be happy?”

— Rainbow Rowell

236. “I wouldn’t even have to think about it, Neal. I’d choose you. I’d choose you again and again and again. Seth is my best friend-I think he’ll always be my best friend-but you’re my future. You’re my whole life.”

— Rainbow Rowell

237. “I wrote all four of my books at Starbucks.”

— Rainbow Rowell

238. “I want to be happy. Like, seventy to eighty percent of the time. I want to be actively, thoughtfully happy.”

— Rainbow Rowell

239. “That’s one way I’ve bettered you. I was weak enough to give your son a chance. And look at him now – he may be dead, but he isn’t lost. He’s dark as a pitch and sharp as a blade, and he’s full of your magic. He’s a bonfire. He’d make you proud, Tasha.”

— Rainbow Rowell

240. “I don’t like hello. It makes me sound like I have dementia, like I’ve never heard a phone ring before and I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. Hello?”

— Rainbow Rowell

241. “All of her bones seemed more purposeful than other people’s. Like they weren’t just there to hold her up, they were there to make a point.”

— Rainbow Rowell

242. “He knew why he wanted to kiss her. Because she was beautiful. And before that, because she was kind. And before that, because she was smart and funny. Because she was exactly the right kind of smart and funny. Because he could imagine taking a long trip with her without ever getting bored. Because whenever he saw something new and interesting, or new and ridiculous, he always wondered what she’d have to say about it – how many stars she’d give it and why.”

— Rainbow Rowell

243. “It made sense that Tina was in Eleanor’s gym class – because gym was an extension of hell, and Tina was definetly a demon.”

— Rainbow Rowell

244. “She knew she was lovely, and she shared it like a gift. Every smile from Agatha was like waking up to a perfect sunny day. Agatha knew it. And she smiled at everyone who crossed her path, as if it were the most generous thing she could offer.”

— Rainbow Rowell

245. “He’s coming into himself. And I’m coming apart.”

— Rainbow Rowell

246. “Snow’s table manners are atrocious – it’s like watching a wild dog eat. A wild dog you’d like to slip the tongue.”

— Rainbow Rowell

247. “Read to me, sweetheart.”

— Rainbow Rowell

248. “Like, really like you. And i want that kiss to have been the start of something. Not the end.”

— Rainbow Rowell

249. “You shouldn’t reward me for endangering your life, you know. Think of the precedent you’re setting.”

— Rainbow Rowell

250. “He wished that they could go through life like this. That he could physically put himself between Eleanor and the world.”

— Rainbow Rowell