I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.

To begin impatiently is the worst mistake a writer can make

If you smash a city when you're trying to capture it, you actually end up providing the perfect terrain for the defenders while blocking the access for your own armoured vehicles.

I just write the sort of book that I would enjoy reading myself, a book that is both scholarly and recreates the experience of people at that time.

Few things reveal more about political leaders and their systems than the manner of their downfall.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis

I joined the Army in 1965 and served with the 11th Hussars, which I loved. The regiment was so relaxed - a salute was more like a friendly wave.

The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that.

I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does.

The British bombing of Caen beginning on D-Day in particular was stupid, counter-productive and above all very close to a war crime.

It can only be that places left behind often become emotionally simplified - that they sound a single note of pain or pleasure, which means that they are never what they were.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

Celebrities and 'famous' people are just regular folks. I know, it's a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.

The world meets nobody half way.

I like to think of music as an emotional science.

I'll lift you and you lift me, and we'll both ascend together.

I think, if you've got children, that's your life. Your 'showbiz' life, if you want to call it that, is a separate thing, and it isn't everything to me.

People say "I want peace." If you remove I (ego), and your want (desire), you are left with peace.

One wants permissive individuals who do not have a compelling need to reassure themselves that they are leaders.

O the joy of my spirit - it is uncaged - it darts like lightning!