Maeve Binchy Quotes

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

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.

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

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.

I'm an escapist kind of writer.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, meet great people in many lands. I have liked almost everyone I met along the way.

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

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

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.

You're much more believable if you talk in your own voice.

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.

I think I was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.'

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.