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Success Is Not Like A Cake That Needs To Be Divided. It's More Like A Heap Of Stones - A Cairn. If Someone Is Successful, They Add A Stone To The Cairn. It Gets Very High And Can Be Seen From All Over The World. That's How I See It.

-Maeve Binchy

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Success Is Not Like

Maeve Binchy

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Success Is Not Like A Cake That Needs To Be Divided. It's More Like A Heap Of Stones - A Cairn. If Someone Is Successful, They Add A Stone To The Cairn. It Gets Very High And Can Be Seen From All Over The World. That's How I See It.

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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.

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.

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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.

I Once Got A Huge, Expensive Flower Arrangement From A Person I Didn't Like, Who Sent It Out Of Pure Guilt. It Had A Hideous Bird-of-paradise In The Middle, And I Thought It Would Never Fade And Die. I Hated It.

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.

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.

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.

If You Don't Go To A Dance You Can Never Be Rejected But You'll Never Get To Dance Either.

Of Course I Wanted Children. Bright, Gorgeous, Loving Children. I Could Almost See Them.

On The First Day Of School, My Father Told Me I'd Be The Most Popular Girl And Everyone Would Love Me And Want To Be My Friend. It Wasn't So, But It Gave Me An Enormous Amount Of Confidence.

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.

Important Things

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 In Life, Really. And I Think We Are All Striving For It In Different Ways. I Also Believe Very, Very Strongly That Everybody Is The Hero/heroine Of His/her Own Life. 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

I'm Mainly An Airport Author, And If You're Trying To Take Your Mind Off The Journey, You're Not Going To Read 'king Lear.'

I've Had A Good Life, Full Of More Success And Happiness Than I Ever Expected.

She Put Her Head Down On The Table And Cried All The Tears That She Knew She Should Have Cried In The Past Year And A Half. But They Weren't Ready Then, They Were Now.

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.

The Whole Art Of Life Is Knowing The Right Time To Say Things.

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.

I Thought It Must Be Desperate To Be Old. To Wake Up In The Morning And Remember That You Were Ancient - And So Behave That Way. I Thought Old People Were Full Of Aches And Pains And Horrible Illnesses.

I'm An Escapist Kind Of Writer.

The Most Important Thing To Realize Is That Everyone Is Capable Of Telling A Story.

You Say To Yourself: 'what Could People, In All These Countries, Find In My Books?' And Yet I Think We're All The Same, Anywhere. Everybody Is A Hero Or A Dramatic Person In Their Own Story If You Just Know Where To Look.

Everybody Is A Hero In Their Own Story If You Just Look.

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.

I Think I Was Dealt A Good Hand. I Have Happy Genes.

Success Is Not Like A Cake That Needs To Be Divided. It's More Like A Heap Of Stones - A Cairn. If Someone Is Successful, They Add A Stone To The Cairn. It Gets Very High And Can Be Seen From All Over The World. That's How I See It.

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I Think You've Got To Play The Hand That You're Dealt And Stop Wishing For Another Hand.

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.

We Have To Make Our Own Happiness, And We Have To Make Our Own Decisions And Play The Hand That Is Dealt To Us.

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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!

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.

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Family And Friends

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Black And White

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An English Journalist Called Michael Viney Told Me When I Was 25, That I Would Write Well If I Cared A Lot What I Was Writing About. That Worked. I Went Home That Day And Wrote About Parents Not Understanding Their Children As Well As We Teachers Did, And It Was Published The Very Next Week.

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