Cathy Kelly > Quotes

“Closeness means you get hurt; closeness means letting down your defences and letting people see the tender skin under the carapace.”
― Cathy Kelly, Never Too Late

“Do you know that an Irishman always respond to a question with another?"
And the Irish guy replies "Who told you that?”
― Cathy Kelly, Never Too Late

“Just because women can bear children doesn't mean they're unable to harbour the same sort of career ambitions as a man.”
― Cathy Kelly, Never Too Late

“Women are programmed to think they’re the only screw-up in the universe and men are programmed to think they’re the smartest creatures in the universe.”
― Cathy Kelly

“her feelings were unusual creatures. Sensitive as a coral reef to any personal criticism, but entirely oblivious to any hurt she inflicted on anyone else.”
― Cathy Kelly, Homecoming

“Wisdom was so easy to pass on--much harder to practice.”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“Very reliable woman, Carla,’ said Will. ‘Great”
― Cathy Kelly, The Year that Changed Everything

“It was a combination of old magic and a woman’s wisdom with God’s herbs, and most of it is lost. People then didn’t write their wisdom down. They relied on the seanachai to tell the story aloud,”
― Cathy Kelly, Homecoming

“the”
― Cathy Kelly, Other Women

“A billionaire Swiss friend had put it wonderfully when he said that having money merely emphasized what you were all along. If you were a poor son of a bitch, you'd turn into an even worse son of a bitch with money. But if you were fundamentally decent, then you'd stay that way - simply with a nicer bank balance”
― Cathy Kelly, The House on Willow Street

“How could you ever think you knew a person? Did everyone lie?”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“It's not who you are that matters. It's what you do with who you are. The blood running through your veins is the only blood that matters. When you go out into the world, you have the chance to leave the past behind”
― Cathy Kelly, The House on Willow Street

“all”
― Cathy Kelly, Other Women

“you’re”
― Cathy Kelly, The Year that Changed Everything

“You don’t have to put yourself on fire to keep somebody else warm.”
― Cathy Kelly, The Wedding Party

“she’d felt as”
― Cathy Kelly, Someone Like You

“having”
― Cathy Kelly, Once in a Lifetime

“You can’t change other people: you can only change how you react to them.”
― Cathy Kelly, The Year that Changed Everything

“1} But the humble mushroom is proof that sometimes the best things in life are found growing wild and free right under your nose. Don't rush so fast, that you can't see the wild mushrooms around you. (Pg no. 87)

2} Had life been more simple then? When it was harder merely to survive, did people get on with it and not tangle themselves in knots over who they were and why life had shaped them a certain way? (Pg no. 122)

3} Lists can be self-defeating. Lists can become a way to lessen the importance of something. It's too enormous to cope with, so we break it down into a list and then it has less power over us. And that's shutting the door on what we have to deal with. (Pg no. 142)

4} Life is about getting by. Surviving. It's never perfect and we self-sabotage for any number of reasons, but if you try to understand all that about yourself, you can be happy. (Pg no. 143)

5} The problem with running away is that the problem runs with you. (Pg no. 361)

6} Keep it light, never let them know know how you feel. But that doesn't always work out. Sometimes you had to let people know how you felt. Keeping it light, concealing your true feelings, meant nobody knew you. You were a mystery, and being a mystery was all well and good, but it was a lonely way to live. (Pg no. 403)”
― Cathy Kelly, Homecoming

“You’ve nailed”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“Subtly, she was telling him that she had her own life, her own business. An independent woman could always leave.”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“Amy quickly looked away from the guy. She had got to stop reading romantic novels where the unexpected romance was a specialty.”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“Women could survive on their own and men needed a woman in their life.”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“happiness. All those years with Marc,”
― Cathy Kelly, Other Women

“she”
― Cathy Kelly, The Wedding Party

“is that we don’t always get what we deserve but we have to learn to live with what we get.”
― Cathy Kelly, The Family Gift

“stamps”
― Cathy Kelly, What She Wants

“Closure was a dumb notion made up by psychologists who justified people going to them for ever, the concept that one day you'd get over something and be able to say, 'OK, that's in the past, I'm better, I've moved on.' Bullshit.”
― Cathy Kelly, Secrets of a Happy Marriage

“In order to keep her cheerful, us-fat-girls-LOVE-chocolate thing going, Ginger had to eat half the box, even though it made her feel ashamed. Comfort eating always did. That was why she could never lose weight: when her heart was heavy, she numbed it with chocolate or biscuits or ice cream. Hating herself for being fat meant she could keep all other feelings at bay. And for a while, food filled all the dark, sad holes inside her.”
― Cathy Kelly, The Year that Changed Everything