Barbara Taylor Bradford Quotations

When you are a strong woman, you will attract trouble. When a man feels threatened, there is always trouble.

I work eight hours a day, but I'm not writing all that time. I'm thinking, editing, looking something up. Thinking is what I do a lot of.

I am a huge admirer of Elizabeth I, and this intriguing biography gives a wonderful picture of the era.

Edwina always enjoyed a morning ride. Some mornings she rode the horse, and some mornings she rode the groom.

Life was life. It happened. You never knew what was going to come at you. Or how you could defend yourself.

A person with taste is merely one who can recognize the greatest beauty in the simplest things.

It's different when the person you love dies. There's an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there's the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there's no way to deal with the grief and pain.

She put her hand in his, and he clasped it firmly, knowing he had been waiting for her all his life.

Elizabeth was counting on Marco to keep cousin Mary occupied until after the board meeting was over. A piece of cheese might catch a mouse, but an afternoon alone with a muscular masseur would ensnare her cousin far more effectively. And afterwards, while Mary lay sated and sleeping upon a massage table, wiser heads could determine the company's future. There were times, Elizabeth thought, when success in business demanded utter ruthlessness.

At the age of fifty-six Eleanor Stoddard was still a beautiful woman. She owned three hotels in France and another two in England. From nothing at all, she had built an empire. Eleanor had it all. Her one weakness was the young man sleeping beside her.

Bookstores see a book by a woman and they put it in the romance section.

He who ascends to mountaintops, shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind Must look down on the hate of those below

Elizabeth studied the blurry tabloid photo, which showed her cousin Mary Stuart leaving a Paris disco at dawn, drunkenly clinging to the arm of a French tennis pro. The message was very clear. Put passion first and you end up neither loved nor respected.

Successful women don't sleep until noon.

Love is a handful of seeds, marriage the garden, and like your gardens, Paula, marriage requires total commitment, hard work, and a great deal of love and care. Be ruthless with the weeds. Pull them out before they take hold. Bring the same dedication to your marriage that you do to your gardens and everything will be all right. Remember that a marriage has to be constantly replenished too, if you want it to flourish...

This parting cannot be for long; for those who love as we do cannot be parted. We shall always be united in thought, and thought is a great magnet. I have often spoken to thee of reason, now i speak to thee of faith

Always present yourself as a woman who expects to succeed.

If anyone asks me whether I like being a popular writer, I ask them whether they think I'd rather be an unpopular writer.

What is done can never be undone.

I will never stop writing. People often ask when I will retire, but I say it's none of their business. Writing defines who I am. I love the feeling of holding a finished book in my hands, and then I can't wait to start the great adventure of writing the next one.

Priceless things matter not for their value, but because they offer us an enduring reminder of stability and permanence.

Life always gets harder towards the summit - the cold increases, responsibility increases

My dear girl, you must cultivate a taste for the finer things. Civilized pleasures give meaning to life.

In my opinion, moderation is a vastly overrated virtue, particularly when applied to work

Never let stress shape your strategy. Most women think better after a brisk walk, a light meal, a massage and a nap.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make to them; a man may live long, yet get little from life. Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will - Montaigne, Essays

The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.

Elizabeth lay face-down on the massage table, and allowed Marco to relieve the stress of the business day with firm and knowing fingers. Success, she decided, was often a matter of knowing when to relax.

We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.

Even the most powerful woman needs a place to unwind.