I have always been in a condition in which I cannot not write.

When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.

I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end.

To rush in upon an event before its significance has had time to separate from the surrounding circumstances may be enterprising, but is it useful? ... The recent prevalence of these hot histories on publishers' lists raises the question: Should - or perhaps can - history be written while it is still smoking?

Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place.

Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.