Under the force of the imagination, nature itself is changed.

Rioting has always been a London tradition. It has been since the early Middle Ages. There's hardly a spate of years that goes by without violent rioting of one kind or another. They happen so frequently that they are almost part of London's texture.

My great fear has always been complete and utter failure. Hence, you see, all the dispossessed people in my fiction, and why I try to earn as much money as I can. It's a defense. I don't enjoy it or do anything with it.

The 16th-century theatre witnessed the particularly English manifestation of 'the history play.' There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's presentations of 'Henry V' and 'Richard III' have been incalculably more influential than any more sober historical study.

I strike up conversations all the time and it is very interesting, finding out about things I know nothing about.

I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical.

I had to paraphrase the paraphrase.