Top 22 Marian Keyes Quotes

There’s no doubt that relationships do suffer when circumstances change profoundly.

Every day I wake up afraid that I won’t be able to write, that today is the day it has left me.

When I was growing up, I despised Irishness. I felt our music, our television and our books were just poor imitations of what came out of Britain and America. I was all set to abandon it entirely.

Love and kindness go hand in hand.

Optimism can be relearnt.

I’ve kind of realised life is meant to be tough and everybody is in psychic and spiritual discomfort of some sort and has a burden to carry. I’ve realised I’m not special.

I used to write in bed, starting when I woke up. I believe that creative work comes from our subconscious mind, so I try to keep the gap between sleep and writing as minimal as possible.

My mother is the best storyteller. And her mother was too.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’d have loved to have children.

I used to feel defensive when people would say, ‘Yes, but your books have happy endings’, as if that made them worthless, or unrealistic. Some people do get happy endings, even if it’s only for a while. I would rather never be published again than write a downbeat ending.

I think there is pressure on people to turn every negative into a positive, but we should be allowed to say, ‘I went through something really strange and awful and it has altered me forever.’

I know of people who don’t believe it, but depression is an illness, but unlike, say, a broken leg, you don’t know when it’ll get better.

I’ve always been melancholic. At a party, everyone would be looking at the glittering chandeliers and I’d be looking at the waitress’s cracked shoes.

At 30 I thought my life was over. I thought I’d have made something of myself by then, that life would somehow have made the necessary arrangements – but actually I had nothing.

I’m proud of what I write and feel endorsed by my readers.

For feel-good fiction to work, there has to be an element of darkness.

Do I mind being called a chick-lit writer? Well, it’s not the worst thing that could happen.

People promise to stick with their spouse ‘for richer or poorer’ but it’s the ‘for poorer’ part that causes the worry. The big shock is that the ‘for richer’ bit can also cause problems.

When I first met my husband, he had a very good job – company car, pension plan, grudging respect from his staff – the lot. I, on the other hand, was badly paid and devoid of ambition. Then I had a couple of books published and confounded all expectations by starting to earn more than he did.

I haven’t had Botox because my face is a bit lopsided and I depend on keeping everything animated so that people don’t notice.

Baking makes me focus. On weighing the sugar. On sieving the flour. I find it calming and rewarding because, in fairness, it is sort of magic – you start off with all this disparate stuff, such as butter and eggs, and what you end up with is so totally different. And also delicious.

I’ve been so showered in life, beyond my wildest dreams, such as having a loving partner I never thought I’d have.