“I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish…” — Maeve Binchy

If you're going on a plane journey, you're more likely to take one of my stories than 'Finnegan's Wake.'

That's the kind of motif I bring to the books - that people take charge of their own lives.

I wore miniskirts in the days when no fat girls should have, and with total delight.

I was fat, and that was awful because when you're young and sensitive, you think the world is over because you're fat.