People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police.

My mother was a politician in my formative years.

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.

Lives in previous centuries for women are largely a matter of class. It would have been fun to have been a rich, privileged woman in the 18th century, but no fun at all to be her maid.

I am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book.

Of course there's no such thing as a totally objective person, except Almighty God, if she exists.

I'm very interested in good and evil and the moral natures of people.