Barbara Taylor Bradford Quotes

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.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Successful women don't sleep until noon.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Even the most powerful woman needs a place to unwind.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“What is done can never be undone.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

Always present yourself as a woman who expects to succeed.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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 ...”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“I'm not ancient, darling. I'm only fifty. And when it comes to sex a woman of fifty can often outlast a man half her age.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

Yes, damn it, I love you! But the bedroom is not the boardroom, Robert. In the boardroom only one person can be in charge.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“It's all right, darling. I'll finish the financial report on my own. I can think clearly before sex and stay awake afterwards. That's one of the nice things about being a woman.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Sleeping with a man half your age can be exhausting, but if it's too much for him you can always find a younger man.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

You can be with a man for twenty years and never really know who he truly is. Then again, you can meet a man and know everything about him in an instant.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“You know what they say, darling. When an older man seeks out younger women, he's virile. When an older woman seeks out younger men, she's desperate. Well, color me desperate, then. Because I want you, Harris Clayton. And I'm a woman who's very good at getting what she wants! Now come back to bed, darling, and let's forget all about everything except the way we feel.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

Mary never made it to the board meeting. Cunning Elizabeth simply arranged for her cousin's tennis instructor to "delay" her for an hour or two. The man was evidently a superb athlete, though it was entirely Mary's fault that she fell asleep afterwards. Elizabeth took control of the company that very afternoon, by a vote of six to one, while a sated Mary slept. And the silly girl never knew what hit her.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“He's half my ex-husband's age, but twice as energetic when we have sex. And twice as grateful afterwards.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“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.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Memories, James thought, thank God we have them. They help us to recall what's long gone, and we can live again in the past with those we once loved.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“The whole enchilada, kid.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

You've got to admit it takes real genius to start out with nothing and build what she has so brilliantly built. Only

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“As the long limousine purred to life Edwina felt as if she were Elizabeth, setting sail to battle the Spanish Armada. She was Elizabeth, damn it! What she had built no one was going to take away from her. Not her house, not her hotels, not her fine stable of horses
and most especially not the young thoroughbred she had left sleeping by the side of her Olympic-size outdoor pool. Some pleasures, she decided, were simply too enticing to give up.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Because people are always afraid of what they do not know, what they do not understand, the unfamiliar or the different, and that fear invariably turns to hate. Unreasoned hatred that makes no sense. In”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Edwina knew things with Greg had just about run their course. She'd bedded him, and bought him clothes, and now it was time for the polite push out the door. Of course she wished her latest conquest all the best. If he was lucky, Greg would just fall right into some other powerful woman's bed. If not ... well, if not he'd just have to do the old-fashioned thing and look for work. Though darling Greggy-poo didn't really seem the type. Edwina studied him while he slept by the pool, drinking in that tight behind and those bulging muscles for the last time. The trouble with younger men, she thought, was that they were so damned good at sex that they really didn't have to be good at anything else.”

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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.

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

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

— Barbara Taylor Bradford