"The Wong Kar-wai movie. If you haven’t seen it, you must. It’s beautiful, and romantic, and sexy, and impossibly romantic — did I mention? The imagery and the lighting is gorgeous. It’s a DP’s [director of photography] dream. I think I’m a sucker for images. I don’t really need the words as much as I just want beautiful pictures of places I’ve never been and things I’ve never seen."

"Steig wrote and illustrated the best American children’s books. I love the humor, sophistication and pure romantic sweetness of his drawings and stories. His protagonists (in this case a pig called Pearl and her magical bone,) all still manage to keep hold of a sense of wonder and longing in a frightening world. They are romantic dreamers longing for more. I have loved reading them to my kids."

"I have favorite chick flicks and favorite comedies. My taste goes to romantic comedy a lot. Somewhere in Time, with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour — stop already! That was one of the most romantic stories I’d ever seen in my life; I was in tears, but it also involved a little bit of science fiction, with the time travel element. That one really moved me back in 1980."

"Reading this book caused a kind of romantic awakening when I was younger, and my hair has never risen so high as on the last word of the last chapter."

"This book is so intimate and intricate, I can feel Winterson in every word: her almost-reckless belief in romantic love, and her clear-eyed details of the heartbreak that follows."

“I like to listen to music, when I cook especially. I listen to romantic songs because you need to cook with love and that’s the whole point. It’s the most important thing."