I wasn't brought up to be dazzled by money or fame.

It's a shame for women's history to be all about men--first boys, then other boys, then men men men. It reminds me of the way our school history textbooks were all about wars and elections, one war after another, with the dull periods of peace skimmed over whenever they occurred. (Our teachers deplored this and added extra units about social history and protest movements, but that was still the message of the books.)

I love to cook and I've cooked a lot of Bulgarian food over the years.

In those days, I still thoroughly enjoyed the romance I called "by myself"; I didn't know yet how it gets lonely, picks up a sharp edge later on that ruins a day now and then-- ruins more than that, if you're not careful.

For me, Dracula has always been associated with travel and beautiful historical places.

I've always been interested in foreign relations. It's my belief that study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present rather than an escape from it.

No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.