Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people's thoughts.

To a Brit of my generation, one of the most objectionable things about [Margaret] Thatcher is her falsity. She is a total construct. For one thing, she had a made-over accent.

Fiction leaves us so much work to do, allows the individual so much input; you have to see, you have to hear, you have to taste the madeleine, and while you are seemingly passive in your chair, you have to travel.

Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home.

History is a set of skills rather than a narrative.

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

I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.