Love Story Quotes

Context

This line is from the song "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, from the album Fearless (2008).

Remember when Taylor Swift sang country? No? Well, watch this video and relive the days when she used banjoes and fiddles for backup.

Like a ton of other Swift songs, this one is about a relationship. Unlike a ton of other Swift songs, this one is about a relationship that actually works out. This is particularly crazy since, as shown by the lyrics in question, this song references Romeo and Juliet, that classic love story that ends with a double suicide.

This particular line, near the beginning of the song, loosely follows Shakespeare's play, with Juliet's father telling Romeo to stop throwing pebbles at his daughter's window. The ending, however, is where the song deviates, with Juliet's father ultimately giving his blessing and the happy couple reuniting. Taylor has said that she intentionally wrote the song to give Romeo and Juliet a happy ending.

So much for great tragedy.

Where you've heard it

You might've heard Taylor sing in the trailer for the movie Letters to Juliet, whose filmmakers were clearly not afraid of obvious song choices. It is also possible that you read this random piece of fan fiction which uses the song's line as its title, but it seems less likely.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Hm, rewriting Shakespearean tragedy to have a happy ending… we can't decide if that's ridiculously optimistic or a bit pretentious, so we'll give it a 5.