And if a diversion is needed, why not arrest a general? Arthur Dillon is a friend of eminent deputies, a contender for the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Front; he has proved himself at Valmy and in a halfdozen actions since. In the National Assembly he was a liberal; now he is a republican. Isn't it then logical that he should be thrown into gaol, July 1, on suspicion of passing military secrets to the enemy?

If I am feeling broken, I can pick up one of [Ivy Compton-Burnett] books and the next morning I can write again. It puts my mechanism back.

I've got so many ideas, and sometimes the more exhausted my body gets, the more active my mind gets.

As a writer, you owe it to yourself not to get stuck in a rut of looking at the world in a certain way.

It's complementary. It's fairly clear where the boundaries are. When I start telling you the contents of his head, I am making it up. But I try to make it up based on what is on the record. So even my wildest speculations [on Thomas Cromwell] will have a root somewhere.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

For many imaginative writers, working for the press is a fact of their life. But it's best not to like it too much.