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.

I love hearing details of writers' craft, as cannibals eat the brains of clever men to get cleverer.

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

I can't read historical fiction because I find the real thing so much more interesting.

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

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history.

My mother was a politician in my formative years.