Maeve Binchy

“He called everyone sweetheart. There was nothing particularly special about it.”

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

“He thought about how life never turns out like you think and hope it will.”

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

— 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…

— 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…

— 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.…

— 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…

— Maeve Binchy

“How will I explain it all … to everybody?” “You know, people don’t have to explain things nearly as much as you think they…

— 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…

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

“It was quite possible that she had lost the capacity to love and care anymore and that this is how she was…

— Maeve Binchy

Growing up in Ireland, there never seemed to be the notion that children should be seen and not heard. We all looked…

— 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…

— Maeve Binchy

My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way, and he would read a…

— Maeve Binchy

Of course, I should have done what doctors said and walked for miles every day and not eaten great amounts of butter.…

— 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…

— Maeve Binchy

I'm particularly fond of boned chicken breasts with a little garlic under the flesh and cooked in a casserole for 40 minutes…

— Maeve Binchy

I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was…

— 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…

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

“Suddenly it was all very clear to Vanessa that all that mattered was that she get out of this place, far away…

— Maeve Binchy

“The rage she felt was a real thing, you could almost take it out of her and see it, like a red…

— Maeve Binchy

“Wasn’t it hard that you did so much for children and loved them so deeply and they seemed so indifferent to you…

— Maeve Binchy

She put her head down on the table and cried all the tears that she knew she should have cried in the…

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

“do you know the land where the lemon-trees blossom;where the golden oranges glow in the dark foliage''.”

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

After my hip operation, I had to cut out butter, which I loved, and salt. I no longer eat desserts with lots…

— Maeve Binchy

“Any one could write a book," said the taxi driver. "Yes, they could, but they DON'T," said Maeve Binchy”

— Maeve Binchy

I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but…

— Maeve Binchy

I was very pleased, obviously, to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I do realise that I am a…

— Maeve Binchy

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

— Maeve Binchy

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able…

— Maeve Binchy

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and…

— Maeve Binchy