“My mother hoped I would meet a nice doctor or barrister or accountant who would marry me and take me to live in what is now called Fashionable Dublin Four. But she felt that this was a vain hope. I wa...”

Maeve Binchy

“I write exactly as I speak, so therefore I would not say any writer influenced me at all.”

Maeve Binchy

“I don't say I was 'proceeding down a thoroughfare', I say I 'walked down the road'. I don't say I 'passed a hallowed institute of learning', I say I 'passed a school'. You don't wear all your jeweller...”

Maeve Binchy

“It's like if you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.”

Maeve Binchy

“(A) writer, a man I loved and he loved me and we got married and it was great and is still great. He believed I could do anything, just as my parents had believed all those years ago, and I started to...”

Maeve Binchy