If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.

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.

Feminism hasn't failed, it's just never been tried.

Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.

I can't think of any male politician who magnetizes love and hate - mainly hate - the way [Margaret Thatcher] did.

It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluidity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.

History is a set of skills rather than a narrative.