Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the 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.
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 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.
I didn’t get excited by weight loss, and since I was already happy being fat, I couldn’t see the point of it all. I’m 6 ft. and weigh about 18 st. or 19 st., but weighing myself is not something I do with much pleasure.
After my hip operation, I had to cut out butter, which I loved, and salt. I no longer eat desserts with lots of cream, and I’ve cut right back on alcohol.
I discovered that men were just like everyone else, really. They liked you if you were good-tempered and easy to talk to. And being a big girl meant other females trusted you more and confided in you.
I think I was dealt a good hand. I have happy genes.
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.
I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, meet great people in many lands. I have liked almost everyone I met along the way.
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.
Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.
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.
If you don’t go to a dance, you can never be rejected, but you’ll never get to dance, either.
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.
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.
I’ve been very lucky and I have a happy old age with good family and friends still around.
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.
I’m pleased to have outsold great writers. But I’m not insane – I realize I am a writer people buy to take on vacation.
I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you’re going to be an Irish writer.