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

I realize that I had always in my heart of hearts planned to write a biography of Marie Antoinette.

Her imperturbable self-confidence (Duchesse de Maine) caused Madame de Stael to write that the Duchesse believed in herself the same way she believed in God, without explanation or discussion.

I think crime writing is my link with trying to preserve a sort of order.

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

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.

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