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I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

Maeve Binchy

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Maeve Binchy
Age: 73 †
Born: 1939
Born: May 29
Died: 2012
Died: July 30
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
School Teacher
Screenwriter
Short Story Writer
Writer
Maeve Binchy Snell
Confident
Turning
Ugly
Stories
Writing
Ducklings
Swans
Ducks

More quotes by Maeve Binchy

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I think you've got to play the hand that you're dealt and stop wishing for another hand.
Maeve Binchy
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I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.
Maeve Binchy
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When my sister Joan arrived, I asked if I could swap her for a rabbit. When I think what a marvellous friend she's been, I'm so glad my parents didn't take me at my word.
Maeve Binchy
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I have been luckier than anyone I know or even heard of. I had a very happy childhood, a good education, I enjoyed working as a teacher, journalist and author. I have loved a wonderful man for over 33 years, and I believe he loves me, too.
Maeve Binchy
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I do try to live every day as if it were my last, and it has worked for me so far.
Maeve Binchy
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You're much more believable if you talk in your own voice.
Maeve Binchy
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The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.
Maeve Binchy
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I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn't like children on bicycles or roller skates or with big dogs.
Maeve Binchy
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I never wanted to write. I just wrote letters home from a kibbutz in Israel to reassure my parents that I was still alive and well fed and having a great time. They thought these letters were brilliant and sent them to a newspaper. So I became a writer by accident.
Maeve Binchy
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If you write what you know about, you will always be on safe ground. I am very edgy and nervous about going into territories I know nothing about. That's why you don't find much high finance, group sex, or yachting parties in my stories.
Maeve Binchy
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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.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm an escapist kind of writer.
Maeve Binchy
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I remember watching myself on video and being so disappointed with myself because I was constantly moving around the place and laughing. I thought, 'I must be so much louder than I think I am. From inside it feels fine.'
Maeve Binchy
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I've been very lucky and I have a happy old age with good family and friends still around.
Maeve Binchy
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Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm a great will maker. I've made my will every year since I was 21.
Maeve Binchy
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You can't lay down laws for what people think and hope.
Maeve Binchy
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My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way, and he would read a paperback in four journeys. After supper, we all sat down to read - it was long before TV, remember!
Maeve Binchy
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If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.
Maeve Binchy
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Happiness is in our own hearts. I have no regrets of anything in the past. I'm totally cheerful and happy, and I think that a lot of your attitude is not in the circumstances you find yourself in, but in the circumstances you make for yourself.
Maeve Binchy