I am trying to make clear through my writing something which I believe: that biography- history in general- can be literature in the deepest and highest sense of that term.

I write from seven to about noon. I used to try to write longer, but I read and I found that I was always getting myself tired by working in the afternoon and then I was just throwing out what I wrote in the afternoon, so writing then was counterproductive.

There's a theory, and I think the theory is right, that in order to make a change you've got to make the whole language of the page harmonious. Well, that's a lot easier with a computer.

Herman Brown was a businessman who wanted value for money spent. His relationships with politicians were measured by that criterion.

You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you're in another world

At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life.

Whenever I go to work I wear a jacket and a tie, because I'm inherently quite lazy, and my books take so long to do, and my publishers don't bug me, so it's so easy to fool yourself into thinking you're working harder than you really are.