And my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically.

I decided that what I really wanted to do was to make my writing in history deeper, if that's the right word to use. And that is what I did.

People seem to forget that one reason they are now thinking differently is Freud's legacy itself.

To have a liberal temperament is a kind of psychological boon, To be able to understand that someone you disagree with is not just a terrible creature but somebody with whom you disagree.

And my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically.

Since God is silent, man is his own master; he must live in a disenchanted world, submit everything to criticism, and make his own way.

With the passage of years, not all of Dicken's readers remained infatuated with his pathos. One generation's sublimity became another generation's kitsch.