Freud was just a novelist.

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.

As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.

The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make up almost the whole of experience.

I have always believed that the material world is governed by nonmaterial sources, so that in that sense 'English Music' is an exercise in the spiritual as well as the material. I have always been attracted to the Gothic and spiritual imagination, and I've always been interested in visionaries.

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

No poet is ever completely lost. He has the secret of his childhood safe with him, like some secret cave in which he can kneel. And, when we read his poetry, we can join him there.