I've had a good life, full of more success and happiness than I ever expected.

— Maeve Binchy

I was lucky enough to be fairly quick at understanding what was taught, but unlucky enough not to be really interested in it, so I always got my exams but never had the scholar's love of learning for its own sake.

— Maeve Binchy

I was the big, bossy older sister, full of enthusiasms, mad fantasies, desperate urges to be famous, and anxious to be a saint - a settled sort of saint, not one who might have to suffer or die for her faith.

— Maeve Binchy

My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know.

— 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

The great thing about getting older is that you become more mellow. Things aren't as black and white, and you become much more tolerant. You can see the good in things much more easily rather than getting enraged as you used to do when you were young.

— Maeve Binchy

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.

— Maeve Binchy

To heal would be to open the wound, examine it and forgive

— Maeve Binchy

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

— Maeve Binchy

When I was teaching Latin in girls' schools before I became a writer, I didn't much like it if parents would come in and say, 'We'll have less of the Ovid and Virgil and more of the grammar, please.' After all, I was the one in charge. That's how I feel about doctors. You should trust them to do their job properly.

— Maeve Binchy