The thing that most haunted me that day, however...was the fact that these things had - apparently - actually occurred...For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth. And once you've seen that truth - really seen it - you can't look away.

We Gypsies know that where Jews are killed, Gypsies are always murthered too. And then a lot of other people, usually.

It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.

I think it's important to recognise that 'The Da Vinci Code' opened up a vast new audience for a general readership interested in historical detective stories and research into history.

The heart does not go backward. Only the mind.

Recently abandoned women can be complicated.

If there is any good in life, in history, in my own past, I invoke it now. I invoke it with all the passion with which I have lived.