I love going to London for a couple of days but I need to be in the country. I like the silence, the smell and the seasonal changes, especially in spring and summer. I really feel that I belong there.

Take care with your words, Jacquetta, especially in cursing. Only say the things you mean, make sure you lay your curse on the right man. For be very sure that when you put such words out in the world they can overshoot-like an arrow, a curse can go beyond your target and harm another. A wise woman curses very sparingly.

I have seen sights and travelled in countries you cannot imagine. I have been afraid and I have been in danger, and I have never for one moment thought that I would throw myself at at a man for his help.

I would know you anywhere for my true love. Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love.

Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

... all that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.