Maeve Binchy quotes

I look placid, you see, that's why people think I'm fine. Inside I worry a lot.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #People #Worry

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Character #Loss #People

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing in life, really. And I think we are all striving for it in different ways. I also believe very, very strongly that everybody is the hero/heroine of his/her own life. I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters
-- Maeve Binchy

#Hero #Believe #Character

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Swans #Ugly Duckling #Ducks

I'm an escapist kind of writer.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Kind #Escapists

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Real #Writing #Talking

I couldn't have children, so that's the bad side. But compared to everything else I have, it's not all that terribly bad. I count my winners rather than my losers.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Children #Sides #Loser

On the first day of school, my father told me I'd be the most popular girl and everyone would love me and want to be my friend. It wasn't so, but it gave me an enormous amount of confidence.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Girl #Father #School

The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly; there is no time to sit and brood about what you are going to say.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Book #Writing #Long

I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint - a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Mad #Suffering #Saint

My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Brother #Married #Best Marriage

Success is not like a cake that needs to be divided. It's more like a heap of stones - a cairn. If someone is successful, they add a stone to the cairn. It gets very high and can be seen from all over the world. That's how I see it.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Successful #Cake #Add

Of course, I should have done what doctors said and walked for miles every day and not eaten great amounts of butter. But then, life is life, and if we all did what they said we should do, it would be a different world.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Doctors #Different #Would Be

My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way, and he would read a paperback in four journeys. After supper, we all sat down to read - it was long before TV, remember!
-- Maeve Binchy

#Father #Journey #Long

I've had a good life, full of more success and happiness than I ever expected.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Good Life #Expected

If I had my life to live all over again, I really think I would have been a fit person. Looking around me, I realise that the men and women who walked and ran and swam and played sport look better and feel better than the rest of us.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Sports #Feel Better #Men

If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Moving #Book #Given

I once got a huge, expensive flower arrangement from a person I didn't like, who sent it out of pure guilt. It had a hideous bird-of-paradise in the middle, and I thought it would never fade and die. I hated it.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Flower #Bird #Guilt

Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Children #Loving Children #Gorgeous

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Ordinary #Looks

I am not a member of Fat Liberation, nor do I think that obesity is healthy. But I do believe that in many ways my life has been a more charmed and happy one because I was always large.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Believe #Thinking #Healthy

If you don't go to a dance, you can never be rejected, but you'll never get to dance, either.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Rejected

My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Fun #Memories #Home

My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Mother #Fighting #Nurse

I remember watching myself on video and being so disappointed with myself because I was constantly moving around the place and laughing. I thought, 'I must be so much louder than I think I am. From inside it feels fine.'
-- Maeve Binchy

#Moving #Thinking #Laughing

Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Skills #Mind #World

We have to make our own happiness, and we have to make our own decisions and play the hand that is dealt to us.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Hands #Play #Decision

I thought it must be desperate to be old. To wake up in the morning and remember that you were ancient - and so behave that way. I thought old people were full of aches and pains and horrible illnesses.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Morning #Pain #People

I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn't like children on bicycles or roller skates or with big dogs.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Dog #Children #People

I didn't get excited by weight loss, and since I was already happy being fat, I couldn't see the point of it all. I'm 6 ft. and weigh about 18 st. or 19 st., but weighing myself is not something I do with much pleasure.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Loss #Weight #Excited

After my hip operation, I had to cut out butter, which I loved, and salt. I no longer eat desserts with lots of cream, and I've cut right back on alcohol.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Cutting #Alcohol #Salt

I discovered that men were just like everyone else, really. They liked you if you were good-tempered and easy to talk to. And being a big girl meant other females trusted you more and confided in you.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Girl #Men #Female

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Beautiful #Swans #Ugly Duckling

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Disappointment #Betrayal #Hero

You say to yourself: 'What could people, in all these countries, find in my books?' and yet I think we're all the same, anywhere. Everybody is a hero or a dramatic person in their own story if you just know where to look.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Country #Book #Hero

I have been luckier than anyone I know or even heard of. I had a very happy childhood, a good education, I enjoyed working as a teacher, journalist and author. I have loved a wonderful man for over 33 years, and I believe he loves me, too.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Teacher #Believe #Men

I'm particularly fond of boned chicken breasts with a little garlic under the flesh and cooked in a casserole for 40 minutes with a jar of olives, some cherry tomatoes and a spoonful of olive oil.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Oil #Tomatoes #Flesh

When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitting at a desk writing that there was no room for exercise - not that I would have bothered anyway.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Book #Writing #Exercise

When my sister Joan arrived, I asked if I could swap her for a rabbit. When I think what a marvellous friend she's been, I'm so glad my parents didn't take me at my word.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #Parent #Rabbits

I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Couple #Years #Get Better

I've seen a lot of people buy my books and then fall asleep on the plane soon afterwards.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Book #Fall #People

Happiness is in our own hearts. I have no regrets of anything in the past. I'm totally cheerful and happy, and I think that a lot of your attitude is not in the circumstances you find yourself in, but in the circumstances you make for yourself.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Attitude #Regret #Heart

I didn't have a sweet tooth, but I liked butter, and I liked sauces, and I liked wine and curry and cheeses.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Sweet #Wine #Teeth

I was lucky enough to be fairly quick at understanding what was taught, but unlucky enough not to be really interested in it, so I always got my exams but never had the scholar's love of learning for its own sake.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Understanding #Lucky #Sake

I love thriller writers. My favourites are Harlan Coban, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Kathy Reichs and Ed McBain.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Children #Thrillers

I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #Decision #Brave

I'm a great will maker. I've made my will every year since I was 21.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Years #Makers #Made

I think you've got to play the hand that you're dealt and stop wishing for another hand.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #Hands #Play

I have great family and good friends; the stories I told became popular, and people all over the world bought them.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Good Friend #People #Stories

Happiness is knowing and appreciating what you've got. I am very, very, very grateful for what, to me, is dead easy.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Grateful #Knowing #Appreciate

In my stories, whenever there's somebody wonderful and charming and bright and intelligent, that's me!
-- Maeve Binchy

#Intelligent #Stories #Wonderful

I'm mainly an airport author, and if you're trying to take your mind off the journey, you're not going to read 'King Lear.'
-- Maeve Binchy

#Kings #Journey #Airports

I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but no vitamins or supplements.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Mean #Blood #Pills

I think I was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #Hands #Genes

If you write what you know about, you will always be on safe ground. I am very edgy and nervous about going into territories I know nothing about. That's why you don't find much high finance, group sex, or yachting parties in my stories.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Sex #Party #Writing

The great thing about getting older is that you become more mellow. Things aren't as black and white, and you become much more tolerant. You can see the good in things much more easily rather than getting enraged as you used to do when you were young.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Black And White #Getting Older #Used

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Art #Knowing #Timing

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Reading #Thinking #Parent

Money doesn't make you happy, but it gives a zone of comfort around you.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Happiness #Success #Giving

An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I went home that day and wrote about parents not understanding their children as well as we teachers did, and it was published the very next week.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Teacher #Children #Home

She put her head down on the table and cried all the tears that she knew she should have cried in the past year and a half. But they weren't ready then, they were now.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Past #Years #Tears

It was so silly to try to define things by words. What did one person mean by infatuation or obsession and another mean by love. The whole thing couldn't be tidied away with neat little labels." - Lena Gray
-- Maeve Binchy

#Silly #Mean #Trying

Everybody is a hero in their own story if you just look.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Hero #Looks #Stories

All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Home #Writing #People

If you woke up each morning, and immediately dwelt on your ills, what sort of a day could you look forward to?
-- Maeve Binchy

#Morning #Looks

The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Important #Stories #Realizing

I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Life #Trying #Lasts

You can't lay down laws for what people think and hope.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Thinking #Law #People

I don't think you're happier if you're thin or beautiful or rich or married. You have to make your own happiness. My heroines do not become beautiful elegant swans, they become confident ducks and get on with life.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Beautiful #Thinking #Swans

I have always believed that life is too short for rows and disagreements. Even if I think I'm right, I would prefer to apologize and remain friends rather than win and be an enemy.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Life Is Too Short #Winning #Thinking

I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Childhood #Very Happy #Irish Writers

I'm pleased to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I realize I am a writer people buy to take on vacation.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Vacation #People #Insane

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Important

I've been very lucky and I have a happy old age with good family and friends still around.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Family And Friends #Age #Lucky

I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.
-- Maeve Binchy

#Home #Writing #Israel