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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
Swans
Ducks
Confident
Turning
Ugly
Stories
Writing
Ducklings

More quotes by Maeve Binchy

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I have no idea whether what I write will be of the remotest interest to anyone else. Some mornings when I read what I wrote the previous day I think it's fairly entertaining other times I think it's pure rubbish. The main thing is not to take any notice, not to be elated or upset, just keep going.
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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Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.
Maeve Binchy
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If I had my life to live all over again, I really think I would have been a fit person. Looking around me, I realise that the men and women who walked and ran and swam and played sport look better and feel better than the rest of us.
Maeve Binchy
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If you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.
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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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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The biggest influence on my books was the fact that I had worked in a newspaper for so long. In a daily paper, you learn to write very quickly there is no time to sit and brood about what you are going to say.
Maeve Binchy
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Of course, I should have done what doctors said and walked for miles every day and not eaten great amounts of butter. But then, life is life, and if we all did what they said we should do, it would be a different world.
Maeve Binchy
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Money doesn't make you happy, but it gives a zone of comfort around you.
Maeve Binchy
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Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.
Maeve Binchy
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You can't lay down laws for what people think and hope.
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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My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know.
Maeve Binchy
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When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitting at a desk writing that there was no room for exercise - not that I would have bothered anyway.
Maeve Binchy
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I'm particularly fond of boned chicken breasts with a little garlic under the flesh and cooked in a casserole for 40 minutes with a jar of olives, some cherry tomatoes and a spoonful of olive oil.
Maeve Binchy
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I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.
Maeve Binchy
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The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.
Maeve Binchy
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I have an irregular heartbeat, so that means a fair amount of medication - and I have blood pressure pills, too, but no vitamins or supplements.
Maeve Binchy