“You can't write well what you don't read for pleasure. If it doesn't entertain you, it's not going to entertain anyone else.”

“I do not feel obliged in my reading. I read to be entertained and to relax, and to go into another world, not because it's good for me.”

“Happily ever after?" "If justice doesn't triumph and love doesn't make the circle in entertainment fiction, what's the point? Real life sucks too often.”

“She stepped out of the box, smiled sweetly. "You know, Brian, just because you can make a fifteen hundred pound horse do what you want, doesn't mean you can budge me one inch.I'm going to go bet on our horse.To win.""It's not our-" He broke off, swore, as she'd already flounced out. "And you don't bet to win," he muttered. "It's nothing personal," he said to Finnegan who was watching him with soft, sad eyes. "I just can't be owning things.It's not that I don't have great affection and respect for you,for I do. But what happens in a year or two down the road I move on? Even if I don't-as it's feeling more and more that I'd wonder why I would-I can't have the wman give me a horse.Even a half a horse. Well, not to worry.We'll straighten it all out later.”

“Let's clear the air here,Joshua." She leaned forward,the confidence in her eyes sultry. "I like sex.i think it's an excellent form of entertainment. But I don't have to be entertained every time someone suggests a party.I select the time,the place, and my playmates."Satisfied,she sat back and lazily chose a tiny cake from the basket. That, she was sure,should settle that."You might be able to get away with that.If you hadn't been trembling and moaning under me half an hour ago.""I was not moaning."He smiled. "Oh,yes.You were." Yes,indeed,he was feeling much,much better. "And on the verge of writhing.""I never writhe.""You will.”

“You don't fix a man the way you do a fault in a pipe or a leak in a roof. You take him as he is, Mary Brenna, or you don't take him at all...adjustments can't be all made on one side, darling, else the balance goes off and what's being built just falls down.”

“Aidan to Jude: What's wrong with running away if where you were didn't suit you? Doesn't it follow you're funning to something else? Something that does suit you?”