I’m not sure I can define romantic, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t it…

Romance originally meant a story about a dashing hero written in French. As those stories often revolved around unrequited love, adoration from afar and secret trysts (what a nice word) it gradually came to have its modern meaning.
What constitutes romantic behaviour though is largely a matter of taste. One person’s temperature-raising gesture is someone else’s tacky teddy bear with a heart stapled to its tummy.
However, when I came across this quote from author Nicholas Sparks I was confident that no woman would accuse him of being romantic. I had never heard of Sparkes before but research soon revealed that he is a highly successful American novelist of romantic dramas. He earned a $1 million advance for his first novel and since then eight novels have been turned into films. With that track record, he should be an expert on the romantic. Maybe he was mis-quoted, maybe I’m just too picky.

I have a great wife and it’s very easy to be romantic because it makes her happy and then my life is so much better when she’s happy.