When I was a teenager, my Saturday afternoon trip to the cinema was the highlight of my week. I would go with my father and my sister, and we’d watch the latest Hollywood spectacular. I loved being swept away in the great romances playing out on screen. Those first films I watched were fodder for my fertile imagination, and still, when I watch the movies of my teens now, I lose myself in the wonderfully passionate, epic love stories.

These days, I don’t visit the cinema often, but I still love to curl up and watch a movie on the television. Books, of course, are my number one choice for romantic escapism, but movies come a close second, because the staging and the characterisation and the settings and the music – everything adds up to such a powerful, cathartic experience.

This week, I’ve been collating some of my favourite romantic movie lines. I’m sharing 25 of my favourites here, and Tweeting them through the week as well. Enjoy!

1. You stay alive, no matter what occurs!… No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you. Last of the Mohicans
2. It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together … and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home. .. only to no home I’d ever known … I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like … magic. Sleepless in Seattle
3. It seems right now that all I’ve ever done in my life is making my way here to you. The Bridges of Madison County
4. If there’s any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. Before Sunrise
5. Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in. American Beauty
6. I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. City of Angels
7. I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. When Harry Met Sally
8. No, I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how. Gone With the Wind
9. Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time. Casablanca
10. You made me a man by loving me, Holly. And for that, I am eternally grateful… literally. If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you’re sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you’ll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I’m a man with no regrets. How lucky am I? You made my life, Holly. But I’m just one chapter in yours. There’ll be more. I promise. So here it comes, the big one. Don’t be afraid to fall in love again. Watch out for that signal, when life as you know it ends. P.S. I will always love you. PS I Love You
11. Me? I’m scared of everything. I’m scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you. Dirty Dancing
12. The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.  Moulin Rouge
13. Longing. Longing for a wave of love that would stir in me. That’s what makes me clumsy. The absence of pleasure. Desire for love. Desire to love. Wings of Desire
14. 14.   You make me want to be a better man.  As Good As It Gets 
15. I promise I’ll come back for you. I promise I’ll never leave you. The English Patient
16. I love you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I’ve even loved you before I saw you. A Place in the Sun
17. Don’t forget I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. Notting Hill
18. You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on. Pride and Prejudice
19. You had me at hello. Jerry Maguire
20. I vow no matter what challenges might carry us apart that we will always find a way back to each other. The Vow
21. There are only four questions of value in life: What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? And what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love. Don Juan De Marco
22. So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What’s it look like? If it’s with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that’s what you really wanted. But don’t you take the easy way out. The Notebook
23. Ehm, look. Sorry, sorry. I just, ehm, well, this is a very stupid question and… particularly in view of our recent shopping excursion, but I just wondered, by any chance, ehm, eh, I mean obviously not because I guess I’ve only slept with 9 people, but-but I-I just wondered… ehh. I really feel, ehh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with the Partridge family, eh, “I think I love you,” and eh, I… I just wondered by any chance you wouldn’t like to… Eh… Eh… No, no, no of course not… I’m an idiot, he’s not… Excellent, excellent, fantastic, eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb… Better get on… Four Weddings and a Funeral
24. Listen to me, mister. You’re my knight in shining armor. Don’t forget it. On Golden Pond
25. Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me… it brought me to you … You must do me this honor, Rose. Promise me you’ll survive. That you won’t give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise. Titanic

So there you have them – 25 of the seminal lines in movies that make me melt. Which lines would you add to the list?

In addition, if you love romance movies, take a look at this news  item: ‘Watch Love Actually to heal a broken heart and Mamma Mia to end a midlife crisis: New movie timeline chronicles our lives in film’. A survey by Universal Pictures has found that the film most likely to inspire a person to find love is Love Actually, and that the ‘biggest celebrity crush moment for women’ is Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice – no surprise there!