Binchy Quotes & Sayings

The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story. It doesn't matter where we were born or how we grew up. — Maeve Binchy

When I was teaching Latin in girls' schools before I became a writer, I didn't much like it if parents would come in and say, 'We'll have less of the Ovid and Virgil and more of the grammar, please.' After all, I was the one in charge. That's how I feel about doctors. You should trust them to do their job properly. — Maeve Binchy

God, Benny, don't blow your nose like that in the church. You'd lift half the congregation out of their seats," Patsy warned. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

Eve showed Aidan how to rake the range. "I think when we're married we might have something more modern," he grumbled. "No, surely with the eight children we can have them stoking it, going up the chimney even. — Maeve Binchy

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

Why should I apologise for being utterly honest from the start, telling you the score, telling you the truth, coming to meet your parents, calling them to say I was worried that you didn't answer your phone. Are these the actions of some kind of shit? No, I think they're what a man who loves you might do. — Maeve Binchy

As a memorial, I'd like a statue. Not of me, but a little modern statue, in marble or bronze, maybe of a bird, in a park where children could play and people going by could see it. On it, I'd just like it to say: 'Maeve Binchy, storyteller' and people could look at the name and remember that they'd seen it somewhere else. — Maeve Binchy

I once tried to write a novel about revenge. It's the only book I didn't finish. I couldn't get into the mind of the person who was plotting vengeance. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

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

Listen to me, Ria. It will be different when you and I have a home. It will be a real home, one that people will want to come running back to. — Maeve Binchy

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

I do realize that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation. I'm an escapist kind of writer. — Maeve Binchy

The situation. First time in the country and she had found St. Jarlath's Crescent with no difficulty. "You must be Noel. I hope I'm not too early for the household." "No, we were all up. We're about to go to work, you see, and you are very welcome, by the way." "Thank you. Well, shall I come in and say hello and good-bye to them?" Noel realized that he might have left her forever on the doorstep, but then he was only half awake. It took him until about eleven a.m., when he had his first vodka and Coke, to be fully in control of the day. Noel was absolutely certain that nobody at Hall's knew of his morning injection of alcohol and — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

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

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

It was true what they had been saying: if people remember you, then you're not dead. It was very comforting. — Maeve Binchy

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

We asked our friends and relations to lend us their children, and, because we lived in London, children loved to come and stay for their half-term holidays. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

I'll understand if you don't want me. But I will be heartbroken. You are all I ever dreamed of and hoped for. You are much, much more. Please know that I didn't think I was mean-minded. But I realize I am. I don't want you to put your arms around me and say it's all right, that you forgive me. I want you to be sure that you do, and my love for you will last as long as I live. I can see no lightness, no humour, no joke to make. I just hope that we will be able to go back to when we had laughter, and the world was coloured, not black and white and grey. I am so sorry for hurting you. I could inflict all kinds of pain on myself, but it would not take back any I gave to you. - David Power — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

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

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

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

respectability with overtones of — Maeve Binchy

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

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

I was fat, and that was awful because when you're young and sensitive, you think the world is over because you're fat. — Maeve Binchy

Well. The term "frocky" was used a lot as a derogatory description for women that Eileen and Stephanie thought were dressing just to please male egos. Yet — Maeve Binchy

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

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

To heal would be to open the wound,examine it and forgive — Maeve Binchy

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

He smiled at her, handsome Alan, who was always used to getting his own way. He hadn't changed. Alan, who was already as faithless to Cinta as he had been to her. Suddenly, like a focus in binoculars, everything became clear. This was a man worth spending not one more minute thinking about, second-guessing or trying to understand. — Maeve Binchy

Nobody ever wins by the cavalry coming to rescue you. It isn't a question of you're happy if you get married, or you get thin, or you get rich, because I've known lots of thin, rich, married people who are absolutely miserable. — Maeve Binchy

The day she realized that there were many ways to go, and Mother's was only one way. Not necessarily the right way, and not at all the wrong way. Just one of the many ways ahead. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

No, that can't be so.' 'Believe me, it is. All kinds of things you told them like sunsets are good and killing small birds is bad.' 'Oh please, may I have said something less banal. Please! — Maeve Binchy

I live in Ireland near the sea, only one mile from where I grew up - that's good, since I've known many of my neighbours for between 50-60 years. Gordon and I play chess every day, and we are both equally bad. We play chatty, over-talkative bad bridge with friends every week. — Maeve Binchy

I was very pleased, obviously, to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I do realise that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation. — Maeve Binchy

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

Writing is a bit like going on a diet; you should either tell everyone or no one. — Maeve Binchy

Her life was like her house - a colorful fantasy where anything was possible if you wanted it badly enough. — Maeve Binchy

If you had your time all over again ... ? She was keen to know.
You can't rewrite history. I have no idea what I'd do. — Maeve Binchy

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

I have no idea whether what I write will be of the remotest interest to anyone else. Some mornings when I read what I wrote the previous day I think it's fairly entertaining; other times I think it's pure rubbish. The main thing is not to take any notice, not to be elated or upset, just keep going. — Maeve Binchy

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

Always she had sounded sympathetic, always she had appeared to understand. But inside there was a bit of her that said that they couldn't have tried hard enough. If Celia had a daughter who was desperately unhappy at school and who had lost four stone in weight, she wouldn't hang around
she'd try to cope with it. If she had a father who couldn't cope she'd have him to live with her. Only now was she beginning to realize that it was not to be so simple. People had minds of their own. And her mother's mind was like a hermetically sealed box in a vault of a bank. — Maeve Binchy

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

I was just lucky I lived in this time of mass-market paperbacks. — Maeve Binchy

She said that it was dangerous to try to know somebody too well. People should have their own reserves, she said, the places they went in their minds, where no one else should follow. — Maeve Binchy

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

No point in destroying Wednesday thinking about Friday. This one-day-at-a-time thing really worked. Friday — Maeve Binchy

I don't say I was 'proceeding down a thoroughfare;' I say I 'walked down the road'. I don't say I 'passed a hallowed institute of learning;' I say I 'passed a school'. — Maeve Binchy

2. Men like women without make-up. They don't. They like extremely well and carefully made-up women whose skin has that expensive cultured look which comes from three hours at the dressing table. A woman who is really without make-up would frighten them to death. They regard blotches as eczema, and uneven colouring as a sign of tertiary syphilis. — Maeve Binchy

Stop thinking like Alice in Wonderland, Celia told herself sternly. You're a grown-up, it's no use shutting your eyes, wishing things would happen — Maeve Binchy

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

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

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

That's the kind of motif I bring to the books - that people take charge of their own lives. — Maeve Binchy

It was quite possible that she had lost the capacity to love and care anymore and that this is how she was going to be for the rest of her life. — Maeve Binchy

I realized that you didn't have to make self-deprecating remarks or turn yourself into the butt of some unspoken joke. I also discovered that being big didn't deter possible suitors. — Maeve Binchy

home early, Liam? — Maeve Binchy

When I was being brought up, we weren't allowed to wallow in self-pity, which was a thoroughly good thing. We were all fine and healthy because that was what we were told to be. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

I am much more understanding of people than I used to be when I was young - people were either villainous or wonderful. They were painted in very bright colours. The bad side of it - and there is a corollary to everything - is that when we get older, we fuss more. I used to despise people who fussed. — Maeve Binchy

Most people, once the money started getting bigger, thought we would buy a millionaire's house looking out at the sea - but what would two middle-aged people do that for? We were sensible enough when we got it. — Maeve Binchy

That Dr. Morrissey had always said that we found excuses to put off doing something that would take our minds off our worries. It was as if we didn't want to lose the luxury of worrying. — Maeve Binchy

In Ireland every place you visit and every person you meet has a story. And they love to tell you their stories. Everyone is interested in everything; in a land of storytellers, you will never be bored. — Maeve Binchy

In my books, there is no 'ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan' syndrome because if you look at the Hansel and Gretel syndrome, it was a mistake. It wasn't a duckling, it was a cygnet, and that's why it turned into a swan. The duckling should with any luck turn into a nice clucking duck and get on with its life. Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! — Maeve Binchy

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

Modern surgery has been like a miracle to those who thought the pain was going to go on forever. — Maeve Binchy

She soon called a halt to the work. Judy's great success was that she stopped her helpers before they got tired. — Maeve Binchy

If you're going on a plane journey, you're more likely to take one of my stories than 'Finnegan's Wake.' — Maeve Binchy

A silly idea about a book of blessings couldn't really work. Not seriously. — Maeve Binchy

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

I am a big, confident, happy woman who had a loving childhood, a pleasant career, and a wonderful marriage. I feel very lucky. — Maeve Binchy

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

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

In my experience ,lights at the end of the tunnel tend to flicker out . — Maeve Binchy

I have been blessed with friends who do things rather than buy things: friends who will change books at the library, take a bag of your old clothes to a thrift store, bring you cuttings and plant them in a window box, fill the bird feeder in your garden when you can't get out. — Maeve Binchy

It's a funny old world. Once you realize that, you're halfway there. — Maeve Binchy

Do you know the land where the lemon-trees blossom;where the golden oranges glow in the dark foliage'. — Maeve Binchy

Who knows what light housework means? One nun's light could be another nun's penal servitude. — Maeve Binchy

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