Top 40 Maeve Binchy Quotes

I’m an escapist kind of writer.

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

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.

That’s the kind of motif I bring to the books – that people take charge of their own lives.

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.

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

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.

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

I grew up thinking it was wonderful to be big and strong and to be able to knock down other children in the playground if I needed to. But I never felt the need.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

Growing up in Ireland, there never seemed to be the notion that children should be seen and not heard. We all looked forward to mealtimes when we’d sit around the table and talk about our days. Storytelling and long, rambling conversations were considered good things.

I used to dream of some kind of way that you could carry a phone with you – but I never thought I would see it in my lifetime. It doesn’t matter nowadays if you are caught in traffic or got lost on the way somewhere. You can just send a text and the recipient will know that you haven’t fallen under a bus.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

My family life reads a bit like ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ I was big sister to Joan, Renee, and brother William, and we grew up in Dalkey, a little town 10 miles outside of Dublin. It was a secure, safe and happy childhood, which was meant to be a disadvantage when it comes to writing stories about family dramas.

I suppose, to be fair, I don’t miss the energy of youth very much – because I was never fit. So it doesn’t matter not being able to walk miles, striding the countryside, taking deep breaths and enjoying the scenery. That was never on my agenda.

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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