Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

I have learned the power of surviving.

I felt as if we were fighting something worse than Anne, some demon that possessed her, that possessed all of us Boleyns: ambition - the devil that had brought us to this little room and brought my sister to this insane distress and us to this savage battle.

One’s lover is one’s partner in observing and understanding the world. Marriage is a place where joint narratives are composed. If the lover is a liar then all your joint observations are unreliable. You will have to start all over again.

I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?

Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.

Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.