Maeve Binchy > Quotes

“I'll understand if you don't want me. But I will be heartbroken. You are all I ever dreamed of and hoped for. You are much, much more. Please know that I didn't think I was mean-minded. But I realize I am. I don't want you to put your arms around me and say it's all right, that you forgive me. I want you to be sure that you do, and my love for you will last as long as I live. I can see no lightness, no humour, no joke to make. I just hope that we will be able to go back to when we had laughter, and the world was coloured, not black and white and grey. I am so sorry for hurting you. I could inflict all kinds of pain on myself, but it would not take back any I gave to you. - David Power”
― Maeve Binchy, Echoes

“I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.”
― 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 in life, really. And I think we are all striving for it in different ways. I also believe very, very strongly that everybody is the hero/heroine of his/her own life. I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters”
― Maeve Binchy

“I look placid, you see, that's why people think I'm fine. Inside I worry a lot.”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

“She put her head down on the table and cried all the tears that she knew she should have cried in the past year and a half. But they weren't ready then, they were now.”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

“It was so silly to try to define things by words. What did one person mean by infatuation or obsession and another mean by love. The whole thing couldn't be tidied away with neat little labels." - Lena Gray”
― Maeve Binchy, The Glass Lake

“If you had your time all over again....? She was keen to know.

You can't rewrite history. I have no idea what I'd do.”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

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

“Writing is a bit like going on a diet; you should either tell everyone or no one.”
― Maeve Binchy, The Maeve Binchy Writers' Club

“Who knows what light housework means? One nun’s light could be another nun’s penal servitude.”
― Maeve Binchy, Circle of Friends

“It’s a funny old world. Once you realize that, you’re halfway there.”
― Maeve Binchy, A Week in Winter

“You can’t marry an ungenerous man; there’s no joy in his soul.”
― Maeve Binchy, Chestnut Street

“Wasn’t it hard that you did so much for children and loved them so deeply and they seemed so indifferent to you in return?”
― Maeve Binchy, Chestnut Street

“Is there anything more harsh in this life than to be misjudged, and have one’s motives entirely misunderstood?”
― Maeve Binchy, Circle of Friends

“How will I explain it all … to everybody?” “You know, people don’t have to explain things nearly as much as you think they do.”
― Maeve Binchy, A Week in Winter

“Listen to me, Ria. It will be different when you and I have a home. It will be a real home, one that people will want to come running back to.”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

“She said that it was dangerous to try to know somebody too well. People should have their own reserves, she said, the places they went in their minds, where no one else should follow.”
― Maeve Binchy The Glass Lake

“But an intelligent man like you would know that to live in an unrealistic hope is a very foolish way to spend a life." - Lena Gray”
― Maeve Binchy, The Glass Lake

“The day she realized that there were many ways to go, and Mother’s was only one way. Not necessarily the right way, and not at all the wrong way. Just one of the many ways ahead.”
― Maeve Binchy, Chestnut Street

“...And he said nothing. Just put his arms around her more closely as the whole heart clinic and their friends and relations danced to the music of "Hey Jude".”
― Maeve Binchy, Heart and Soul

“Problems don’t solve themselves neatly like that, due to a set of coincidences. Problems are solved by making decisions. Erika had always said that, and he had thought she was being doctrinaire. But it was true. Deciding not to change anything was a decision in itself. He hadn’t fully understood this before.”
― Maeve Binchy, A Week in Winter

“It was quite possible that she had lost the capacity to love and care anymore and that this is how she was going to be for the rest of her life.”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

“do you know the land where the lemon-trees blossom;where the golden oranges glow in the dark foliage''.”
― Maeve Binchy, Nights of Rain and Stars

“It was true what they had been saying: if people remember you, then you're not dead. It was very comforting.”
― Maeve Binchy

“Stop thinking like Alice in Wonderland, Celia told herself sternly. You're a grown-up, it's no use shutting your eyes, wishing things would happen”
― Maeve Binchy

“He thought about how life never turns out like you think and hope it will.”
― Maeve Binchy, Chestnut Street

“She soon called a halt to the work. Judy's great success was that she stopped her helpers before they got tired.”
― maeve binchy, The Lilac Bus

“There were women who fussed about their homes as if they thought life were a permanent examination where they would be found wanting.”
― Maeve Binchy, A Week in Winter

“It’s what people do is important, not what they say or feel.”
― Maeve Binchy, Circle of Friends

“well. The term “frocky” was used a lot as a derogatory description for women that Eileen and Stephanie thought were dressing just to please male egos. Yet”
― Maeve Binchy, Tara Road