Elizabeth lifted her skirt, disregarding modesty, and delivered a swift kick to the creature's head.

The business of Mr. Bennett's life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennett's was to get them married.

Of all the weapons she had commanded, Elizabeth knew the least of love; and of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous.

I wrote one terrible manuscript after another for a decade and I guess they gradually got a little less terrible. But there were many, many unpublished short stories, abandoned screenplays and novels... a Library of Congress worth of awful literature.

Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see

I think any period in history can be adapted into interesting fiction, as long as you approach the actual history with respect.

If you write really good material, the rest just falls into place. There's really no trick to it.