My first book was a historical novel. I started writing in 1974. In those days, historical novels meant ladies with swelling bosoms on the cover. Basically, it meant historical romance. It was not respectable as a genre.

[Margaret Thatcher] was always talking about what the prudent housewife should do and what the prudent housewife knew.

Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

There's a feeling of power in reserve, a power that drives right through the bone, like the shiver you sense in the shaft of an axe when you take it into your hand. You can strike, or you can not strike, and if you choose to hold back the blow, you can still feel inside you the resonance of the omitted thing.

There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ than monarchy].

At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to eat with, not to stick in people.

Memory isn't a theme; it's part of the human condition.