The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours

History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

God doesn't do notes, either. Did Jesus Christ say, "Can I be excused the Crucifixion?" No!

Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.

You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.

Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.

I think the writer's quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I'd have thought, slightly more risky.