I remember watching myself on video and being so disappointed with myself because I was constantly moving around the place and laughing. I thought, ‘I must be so much louder than I think I am. From inside it feels fine.’ – Maeve Binchy
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. – Maeve Binchy
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. – 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 Lear.’ – 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
If you’re going on a plane journey, you’re more likely to take one of my stories than ‘Finnegan’s Wake.’ – 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
All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with. – 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
As a memorial, I’d like a statue. Not of me, but a little modern statue, in marble or bronze, maybe of a bird, in a park where children could play and people going by could see it. On it, I’d just like it to say: ‘Maeve Binchy, storyteller’ and people could look at the name and remember that they’d seen it somewhere else. – Maeve Binchy
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. – 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
I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident. – 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
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
I thought it must be desperate to be old. To wake up in the morning and remember that you were ancient – and so behave that way. I thought old people were full of aches and pains and horrible illnesses. – 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
I didn’t have a sweet tooth, but I liked butter, and I liked sauces, and I liked wine… and curry… and cheeses. – Maeve Binchy
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. – Maeve Binchy
My mother hoped I would meet a nice doctor or barrister or accountant who would marry me and take me to live in what is now called Fashionable Dublin Four. But she felt that this was a vain hope. I was a bit loud to make a nice professional wife, and anyway, I was too keen on spending my holidays in far flung places to meet any of these people. – Maeve Binchy
In my stories, whenever there’s somebody wonderful and charming and bright and intelligent, that’s me! – Maeve Binchy
I think you’ve got to play the hand that you’re dealt and stop wishing for another hand. – Maeve Binchy
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. – 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
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 had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you’re going to be an Irish writer. – Maeve Binchy
You don’t wear all your jewellery at once. You’re much more believable if you talk in your own voice. – Maeve Binchy