Historical Quotes

It seems to me that the basic plot of all historical novels is a romance swept aside by history.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

My work has taken me from historical research to involvement in electronic publishing ventures to the directorship of the Harvard University Libraries.

I think I'm too lazy a writer to do something like historical fiction. You have to do so much research. I just write what I know.

Research is always a very necessary part of my process because all of my books to this point have been historical. Time spent in the library adds to one's wealth as a writer or artist.

You don't go to the movies to do historical research, unless it's historical research about the movies.

Mitterrand had a sense for symbols, and he was the first Socialist president since 1958. He wanted to show that there is historical continuity, a connection with the great figures of French history.

I prefer to have all of this apparatus - historical, literary, critical - and then, beyond initial innocence and naiveté, to try to achieve a new innocence, a new naiveté.

It's kind of alarming for me to realize that, when I'm writing stories about times I remember, it's already historical fiction.

Historical! Must it be historical to catch your attention? Even though historicity, like notoriety, denotes nothing more than thatsomething has occurred.

Nothing genuinely historical was ever lost in this country. For this reason we have two ruling parties: villains and fools.

it is not the inferiority of women that has caused their historical insignificance; it is rather their historical insignificance that has doomed them to inferiority.

All the spookiness comes from giving a contemporary anachronistic sense to terms whose historical meaning is lost to us.

The really historical performance would talk to ghosts.

There is no greater advocate of perestroika than the president of the United States.

On the basis of my historical experience, I fully believe that mathematics of the 25th century will be as different from that of today as the latter is from that of the 16th century.

Whole swaths of the book [Lincoln in the Bardo] are made up of verbatim quotes from various historical sources, which I cut up and rearranged to form part of the narrative.

As the 20th century ended, there were around 120 democracies in the world - and I can assure you more are on the way.

It is no accident that the rise of so many democracies took place in a time when the world's most influential nation was itself a democracy.

We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.

Our aim is a democratic peace.

Happiness is more effectually dispensed to mankind under a republican form of government than any other.

I enjoyed studying costume, learning about the corsetry and the historical context of fashion. I never had any real intention of being a costume designer.

I always wanted to be historical, from almost a baby on, I felt that way about it.

[T]he people as ultimate sovereigns, retain the ultimate power - and even the duty - to overthrow any government that fails to respect their authority.

There's no such thing as a perfect historical film.

Sometimes history knocks at the most ordinary door to see if anyone is home. Sometimes someone is.

The proverbial notion of historical distance consists in our having lost ninety-five of every hundred original facts, so the remaining ones can be arranged however one likes.

Historical atrocities have certainly shown that dehumanizing any group is the first step toward genocide.

The story in that particular spot was an ancient history story, and we wanted to give it a historical feeling, which was why we used a historical calligraphy scroll come to life.

Collins masterfully blends fact and fiction...transcends the historical thriller.

I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.

The Federal Reserve System is nothing more than legalized counterfeit.

This much is true: you have been lied to.

So when you consider the archetypal, historical, and cultural background of whatever you do, it gives you a sense that your occupation can be a calling and not just a job.

The fourth landing of the Columbia is the historical equivalent of the driving of the golden spike which completed the first transcontinental railroad. It marks our entrance into a new era.

In this new world economy, national boundaries are increasingly becoming obsolete.

Mathematics is one of the most basic -- and most ancient -- types of knowledge. Yet the details of its historical development remain obscure to all but a few specialists.

I can see myself wanting to write a historical novel - you don't need to worry about references to reality TV or pop music, you can just get on with the basics of story and character.

I rather wish to rest my case on material considerations, not those of the social future but those of the actual historical period of the capitalist world-economy.

By the way, Howard Zinn's History of America is front and center at the gift shop of the New York Historical Society. The New York Historical Society is deluged with school kids on a daily basis.

Western civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known.

For a hundred years we have been one of the largest oil-producing countries in the world but with a 60 percent poverty rate and now we are canceling the historical debt.

I don't really have a historical overview of my work at all. I'm not an art historian. I don't see that there's this period and that period.

I would say to the new leadership the American people are ready to meet you if you move forward toward the path of democracy.

We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable.

To treat the history of Israel as I would treat the history of England or Russia or China; that is, an attempt at a scientific, historical approach.I am particularly fascinated with origins.

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.

Abigail Adams could become my favorite historical sleuth.

I've always read a lot of historical books and I'm a big fan of documentaries, and I've always thought of ways to do it.