Maeve Quotes & Sayings

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

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

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

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

I tell you all the time, you will never be able to replace me with a brass and steam contraption. — Maeve Alpin

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

If he caught sight of ye in yer wee bit o' black lace, the man's plaid would surely stand out stiff as a banner hung across a pole. — Maeve Greyson

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

I've had sex that didn't feel as good as Maeve's smile. — Jim Butcher

A fine man", observed my sister, pouring mead for the two of us. "Well trained. — Juliet Marillier

That was all Celaena needed to hear before she tossed the ring to Maeve, before Rowan rushed to her, his hands on her cheeks, his brow against her own. "Aelin," he murmured, and it wasn't a reprimand, or a thank-you, but ... a prayer. "Aelin," he whispered again, grinning, and kissed her brow before he dropped to both knees before her. — Sarah J. Maas

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

Maeve had lied. Or lied by omission. But she knew. She knew what the girl had gone through-knew she'd been a slave. That day-that day early on, he'd threatened to whip the girl, gods above. And she had lost it. He'd been such a proud fool that he'd assumed she'd lashed out because she was nothing more than a child. He should have known better-should have known that when she did react to something like that, it meant the scars went deep. And then there were the other things he'd said ... — Sarah J. Maas

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

The Luidaeg is the daughter of Oberon and Maeve, which technically makes her my aunt. Maybe that's why she hasn't killed me yet, although it's just as likely to be the fact that I amuse her. May says we're reenacting the Princess Bride, one "I'll most likely kill you in the morning" at a time. — Seanan McGuire

You all know why we're here. The time has come for action. To be sure we are prepared, Maeve and I will be heading out to scout conditions. We shouldn't be gone more than a fortnight and in our absence, Fianna will be seeing to things. If we don't return, you all know what to do. Look after yourselves and be ready. — Melissa Simmons

Dan Lynch was chuckling, his hand around his small glass. 'I remember Billy saying that AA was a Protestant thing when you came right down to it. Started by a bunch of Protestants. He said he didn't like the chummy way some of them were always calling Our Lord by his first name. I drove him to the first meeting and waited to take him home, 'cause Maeve didn't want him driving, and when he came out he said you could tell who the Catholics were because they'd all been bowing their heads every ten seconds while the Protestants bantered on about Jesus, Jesus Jesus.'
(And sure enough, up and down our stretch of table, heads bobbed at the name.) — Alice McDermott

Maeve was rapidly coming to the conclusion that in a well-organized world, Death should be like the kind of all-expenses-included luxury vacation where they give you a folder at the start filled with the tickets, discount vouchers, schedules, and several phone numbers to ring if you get into trouble. — Neil Gaiman

Tromping through the woods with yards of cloth swaddled around her was more work than tromping through a tangled field of dried cornstalks on the way to the barn. — Maeve Greyson

I nodded to her. Then I eyed Maeve. "What about you? Holding anything back?"
"I want to take you to my bower, wizard," Maeve said, and licked her lips. "I want to do things to you that give you such pleasure your brain bleeds."
"Uh," I said.
Her foxlike smile sharpened. "Also," she said, "my people are about to attempt to kill you. — Jim Butcher

She knew the gold in her eyes had shifted to flame, because when she looked to Maeve, the queen's face had gone bone-white. And then Celaena set the world on fire. — Sarah J. Maas

I'm an escapist kind of writer. — 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

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

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

including Edna Millay, there were five such women: essayist Maeve Brennan, columnist Neith Boyce, novelist Edith Wharton, and social visionary Charlotte Perkins Gilman. — Kate Bolick

Don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you. — Maeve Greyson

I've outgrown my childhood name, and I haven't found a new one yet."
"Ah," she cried. "Then it will be my pleasure to name you for myself. I can tell you are a colleen after my own heart, more like to me than my own daughter Findbhair. So I bestow on you the brave name of Maeve until such a time as another name shall claim you. — Elizabeth Cunningham

Power called to power among the Fae. Perhaps Aelin Galathynius was unlucky the cadre had been drawn to Maeve's power long before she was born, had chained themselves to her instead. Perhaps they were the unlucky ones, for not holding out for something better. — Sarah J. Maas

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

Kenna wet her lips and swallowed hard. The off-white linen of Colum's tunic made his wide expanse of hard-muscled chest and squared shoulders look as though the man had been dipped in white chocolate. Damn, I love white chocolate. Kenna licked her lips again. But she'd bet her favorite nail polish that a taste of Colum would bean any chocolate she'd ever eaten. — Maeve Greyson

What's the matter, Colum? Are you tired of all the currently available pieces in this keep? What happened? Did you run out of new ones? Well, I've got news for you, buddy. This piece isn't up for grabs by just anyone who comes along. The only man good enough to get between my legs is gonna be the man I decide to call husband! — Maeve Greyson

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

Web of time
Veil of space
Carry us to our chosen place
Borne of water
Trialed by Fire
My Sinclair blood claims this power
For the good of all
With harm to none
So as it is spoken
So let it be done. — Maeve Greyson

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

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

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

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

She soon called a halt to the work. Judy's great success was that she stopped her helpers before they got tired. — 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 like working one-on-one with someone, and I think that to go to a school of acting isn't really my thing. — Stella Maeve

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

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

come home tomorrow. Getting back to Maeve's was tricky. There was a new — Denise Grover Swank

Borrow the strength from the companion who believes in you more that you believe in yourself. Guardian to Maeve — P.C. Cast

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

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

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

Hell's bells," I snarled, taking an involuntary step back. "Right here? Now? You could have given me a couple of minutes to get clear, dammit."
"And what fun would that be?" Maeve asked, pushing out her lower lip in a pout. "I am who I am, too. I love violence. I love treachery. I love your pain - and the best part, the part I love most, is that I am doing it for your own good." Her eyes gleamed white all the way around her irises. "This is me being one of the good guys. — Jim Butcher

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

Ms. Taylor's writing style is clear, without frills, and so streamlined that her story flows and flows and flows, without taking a break, to its satisfying conclusion.
Maeve of Tara — Vicki M. Taylor

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

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

Celaena opened her arms wide, Goldryn burning bright in one hand. "Behold my power, Maeve. Behold what I grapple with in the deep dark, what prowls under my skin."
Celaena exhaled a breath and extinguished each and every flame in the city.
The power wasn't in might or skill. It was in the control - the power lay in controlling herself. — Sarah J. Maas

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

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

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

Bad things kept happening to me. It was high fucking time I started happening to them. Maeve — Jim Butcher

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

All we have to face in the future is what has happened in the past. It is unbearable. — Maeve Brennan

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 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

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

Gotham admired Maeve. By day she managed money, and did it brilliantly, but she didn't find it satisfied her intellect. She spoke four languages. She played the piano seriously well. And she read books. Lots of them. — Edward Rutherfurd

Do you have any idea how rare a twenty-three-year-old virgin is where I come from? — Maeve Greyson

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

Yer true future, the future waiting to set your soul on fire, can only be found in the past. — Maeve Greyson

Gray's watchful gaze made her want to squirm as he stepped to her side and tucked her arm into his. "I'd be more than honored to claim ye as friend."
Claim ye. There was something about the way he said those two words that made her look forward to his claiming whatever he wanted. — Maeve Greyson

Whenever Maeve would mention another foster case or needy child she'd heard about and say, What's another pound on an elephant? — James Patterson

Okay," I said. "I'm going to do something I know you both hate. I'm going to get direct. And I'm going to get direct answers from you, answers that convince me that you aren't trying to hide anything from me and aren't trying to mislead me. I know you both have to speak the truth. So give me simple, declarative answers, or I assume you're scheming and walk away right now."
That made Lily press her lips together and fold her arms. Her gaze turned reproachful. Maeve rolled her eyes, casually gave me the finger, and said, "Wizards are such weasels. — Jim Butcher

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

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

Damnation. She needed him inside her. All the way. Now. "If you don't take me now I'm going to be forced to rape you." Trulie slid her hand down between them, grabbed his cock and aligned it for immediate entry.
"As you will it," Gray chuckled. — Maeve Greyson

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