It’s glorious to be able to go onto the Internet and hear any kind of music anywhere, from anywhere, and get it instantly. But there’s also something glorious about having a record with a sleeve and looking at the artwork, putting it on the turntable and playing it, there’s still something romantic to me about that.
What I’d really like to write is a romantic comedy. This is my favorite kind of movie. I feel almost embarrassed revealing this, because the genre has been so degraded in the past twenty years that saying you like romantic comedies is essentially an admission of mild stupidity.
Ooh, it’s too embarrassing to share my innermost romantic secrets – although I have written Danielle the odd poem. If anything they are more comedic than romantic. They used to be well-received but that was before she started studying Shakespeare at drama college. Now I feel so inept.
On one level, this was the biggest challenge out there – to make a film of this scope, in this amount of time, and to go into a different genre, essentially. Yes, I’ve done a vampire film, but ‘Eclipse’ is a very different kind of thing. This is a romantic story, which swings from a darker, more abject feeling to very pure romantic scenes.
More generally, I made an effort to leave out things that weren’t relevant to the main narrative themes of the book, namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic, poetic, countercultural rebel on one side, and the serious businessperson on the other.
Wine writers have been around for almost as long as there has been wine, but in the past, generally speaking, most wine writing was uncritical and emphasized wine as a romantic, historic beverage. Criticism and comparative tastings were eschewed for fear of offending the trade, which most writers depended upon for survival.
I’m a romantic, but I’m not a romantic in the traditional sense. I like to romanticize what happens to me. Whatever happens to me – you could quantify it as good or bad – I romanticize it. I think along the lines of ‘When that thing happened, it made me who I am.’ That kind of thing. It’s a different way of being romantic.
Some of my fans tell me that my voice is more suited for romantic numbers, some others say I do Sufi songs better. But that just goes to say that people are more aware of the different genres now. More people are getting exposed to sufi music because of Bollywood, which is good.
When you have kids and get older, it goes beyond flowers and chocolate. It’s about waking up with a baby, letting her sleep in, and making a coffee for her when she wakes up. To me, being romantic is putting someone else first and thinking about what makes them happy.
Are you kidding? I’m a terrible cook, but John is a really great one. Literally, I never cook. The whole time we were dating, I prepared two officially romantic meals. Both of them were such disasters that he begs me never to go into the kitchen again.
I hate to sound like a romantic adolescent, but I believe artists don’t generally see art as a career choice; they simply can’t overcome their desire to make art, and will live on little income for as long as they have to, before they start to sell their work – or give up and get a paying job.
The work ethic at art school is completely different than the work ethic amongst people who get into music. People who paint, it’s an honorable thing to spend all day and all night in front of your canvas – that is the romantic vision of the painter.
My books are love stories at core, really. But I am interested in manifestations of love beyond the traditional romantic notion. In fact, I seem not particularly inclined to write romantic love as a narrative motive or as an easy source of happiness for my characters.
Normally, things are viewed in these little segmented boxes. There’s classical, and then there’s jazz; romantic, and then there’s baroque. I find that very dissatisfying. I was trying to find the thread that connects one type of music – one type of musician – to another, and to follow that thread in some kind of natural, evolutionary way.
I got into an argument with someone because I said I think 2Pac will be regarded as a great poet. They said he was just a punk gangster. People said the same thing about Francois Villon, and he’s now considered the best French Romantic poet of all time.
I think in a lot of romantic comedies it ends with a kiss, and I feel like in modern day relationships, and maybe just my own experience, it starts with a kiss and then all sort of falls apart and then comes together. You’re texting. You’re wondering what’s going on. There’s no definitions, there’s no labels.
I’m opening up my heart to the idea of dating. It’s funny – my friends would always come to me for romantic advice. I know nothing, and things have changed since I was dating in high school! I’m really trying hard to spend this time working on myself.
When I was about 14 I remember thinking when it came to proposing to my future girlfriend, I’d make a CD with all her favourite songs and a message that said, ‘Will you marry me?’ Shows you what a romantic I was. No one listens to CDs any more. It’s all about iTunes.
I would say one of the most romantic things I’ve done is I’ve taken a girlfriend back to her hometown when she hadn’t been back for years. It was in Puerto Rico, and we stayed there for about a week and a half. She showed me the different places she grew up around.
With female-oriented movies, unless it’s something like ‘Bridesmaids’ or a romantic comedy, you’ve got to really worry about your opening weekend. And I’m always telling stories about women, not younger women, and it’s just a much tougher audience to get to the movie theater.
I’m excited to see a new age of rom-coms, and especially teen romantic comedies, because when I was younger, I was watching ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Hunger Games’ and stuff like that. I loved those movies, but they are a little bit heavy. We didn’t really get to have the lighthearted love stories.
I’m really good at making teen angst romantic. I’m really good at dealing with heartbreak and things like that and making it into this whole experience. But there’s no way to make someone-on-the-Internet-said-something-mean-about-me into romantic angst where you can listen to music and cry or whatever.
I don’t think of myself as a romantic person; I’m kind of more rough and tumble, I think. The things I’m drawn to are outdoorsy, I only get dressed up when I have to. I’m drawn to women who are into the same type of thing. If you’re going to call it romantic, I’m very spontaneous. That’s probably the best thing I have going for me.
Right away I think of two books – ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Rebecca’ – and of just sinking into them as a young reader. I think they must have appealed not just to my romantic adolescent soul, but I suppose there’s also an appealing darkness in both of them.
I got married in Florence, Italy. My husband and I were in love but totally broke, so we eloped and got married in Italy, where he was going on a business trip. We had to pull a guy off the street to be our witness. It was incredibly romantic. Florence is still one of my favorite cities in the world.
