Quotes from Cathy Kelly

Closeness means you get hurt; closeness means letting down your defences and letting people see the tender skin under the carapace.

Do you know that an Irishman always respond to a question with another?" And the Irish guy replies "Who told you that?

Just because women can bear children doesn't mean they're unable to harbour the same sort of career ambitions as a man.

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.

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.

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

Women could survive on their own and men needed a woman in their life.

Amy quickly looked away from the guy. She had got to stop reading romantic novels where the unexpected romance was a specialty.

she'd felt as

Very reliable woman, Carla,' said Will. 'Great

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.

Wisdom was so easy to pass on--much harder to practice.

You can't change other people: you can only change how you react to them.

How could you ever think you knew a person? Did everyone lie?

You don't have to put yourself on fire to keep somebody else warm.

happiness. All those years with Marc

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

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

Subtly, she was telling him that she had her own life, her own business. An independent woman could always leave.

You've nailed

is that we don't always get what we deserve but we have to learn to live with what we get.

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.