She is very plain. What does Henry see in her?'" "He thinks she's stupid. He finds it restful.

It follows that if you are not a mother you are not a grandmother. Your life has become unpunctuated, whereas the lives of other women around you have these distinct phases.

God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.

It was unfortunate for other women who might come after [Margaret Thatcher] that the first woman to become prime minister was a male impersonator.

I'm a very organised and rational and linear thinker and you have to stop all that to write a novel.

Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.

Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect.