Better reality than a dream: if something is real, then it's real and you're not to blame.

The followers must feel besieged.

Naturally, everything depends on one's background books and on what one is looking for.

Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale.

I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.

The good of a book lies in its being read.

History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community.