I only became a novelist because I thought I had missed my chance to become a historian.

I used to think that when I set out that doing the research was enough! But then the gaps would emerge that could only be filled by the imagination. And imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.

I spend a lot of my time talking to the dead, but since I get paid for it, no one thinks I'm mad.

[Margaret Thatcher] admitted to being the daughter of her father but not the daughter of her mother!

History is a set of skills rather than a narrative.

One of the frustrations of someone like Thomas Cromwell is that, before they step into the light of history, and become extremely well documented, they are not known. A king might be well documented but not everyone.

[Margaret Thatcher] was pretending that running a country was like running a household, which she knew wasn't true.