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
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. – Maeve Binchy
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. – 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
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. – Maeve Binchy
I have great family and good friends; the stories I told became popular, and people all over the world bought them. – 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
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. – Maeve Binchy
I’ve seen a lot of people buy my books and then fall asleep on the plane soon afterwards. – Maeve Binchy
I think I’m brave because I’ve made decisions based – I hope not entirely selfishly – on what I think is right for me to do next. – 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. – 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
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 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 don’t have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks. – 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
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
Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world. – Maeve Binchy
I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn’t like children on bicycles or roller skates… or with big dogs. – Maeve Binchy
I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint – a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith. – 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
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. – Maeve Binchy
That’s the kind of motif I bring to the books – that people take charge of their own lives. – Maeve Binchy
I was very pleased, obviously, to have outsold such great writers. But I’m not insane – I do realize that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation. – 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
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
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. – 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