I hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell.

[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.

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

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

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

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies.

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