That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.

I decided as usual that justice lay in the middle - that is to say nowhere.

[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.

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.

Ninety-seven is my lucky number.

Mary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special.

I'm glad I was never an heiress.