I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis

To begin impatiently is the worst mistake a writer can make

I can't envisage stopping writing.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

If you smash a city when you're trying to capture it, you actually end up providing the perfect terrain for the defenders while blocking the access for your own armoured vehicles.

I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does.

When my first novel was published, I went in great excitement round bookshops in central London to see if they had stocked it.