Quotes from Maeve Binchy

Then suddenly Stevie turned and went back to hug her too. 'I'll look after her, please believe me I'll be good to her. If I thought I wouldn't, I'd go away now.' She was so surprised it nearly took her breath away. When they were on the bus she asked him: 'Why did you do that?' 'I wanted to,' he said. Then after a pause: 'I got a funny feeling that I was never going to see her again.

There had been wonderful news from the convent. Mother Clare had broken her hip. Not that Mother Frances called it wonderful news, but it did mean that she would need to be near a hospital and physiotherapy, and all the stairs and the walking in St. Mary's wouldn't be advisable. Mother Frances was in the middle of the thirty days prayer when this happened. She told Eve that it was her biggest crisis of faith yet. Could the prayer be too powerful?

Slightly at a loss, Louis turned to talk to someone else. Young women didn't normally walk away from him like that. Stevie had been watching; he saw the way Louis had laid his hand on Kit's arm with his easy familiar charm. It had made Stevie rage inside.

if your heart is elsewhere, would you not want to follow your destiny?

She was so eager and enthusiastic that Freda and Lane felt dull and slow in comparison. If Eva had been running the library, there might be fairy lights around it, and music blaring from inside. She could have set up a cocktail bar in the foyer. Her life was like her house—a colorful fantasy where anything was possible if you wanted it badly enough.

You've been to Lough Glass.' There was a pause. And then with a heavy menace he said: 'And if you know what's good for you I wouldn't go again.' Then he moved away. Louis had gone white. What did the fellow mean? He saw Stevie put his arm around Kit's shoulder and she held his hand tightly. Kit McMahon, Lena's daughter. And her boyfriend. But they didn't know, for God's sake. None of them knew.

No, that can't be so.' 'Believe me, it is. All kinds of things you told them like sunsets are good and killing small birds is bad.' 'Oh please, may I have said something less banal. Please!

how much better Guinness tasted when drunk by the River Liffey in great quantities.

She had a lot of experience bringing up younger brothers herself but had never been close to a little girl. The

May you always have the best of all possible things and even things that are impossible," she

You know how sorry he is Nan. You must know how he'd give any of us the moon after he's been—not himself." "It's too high a price to pay for the moon

them?" Ria hoped that Danny

fair, he hadn't asked her to make any arrangements for him. His office had booked his hotel, and a limousine

you're trying to blackmail me.' 'I thought you were saying this might be an open line.

I think I was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.

I think you've got to play the hand that you're dealt and stop wishing for another hand.

If you woke up each morning, and immediately dwelt on your ills, what sort of a day could you look forward to?

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.

My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else.

I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far.

The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story. It doesn't matter where we were born or how we grew up.

Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.

Happiness is knowing and appreciating what you've got. I am very, very, very grateful for what, to me, is dead easy.

I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.