King Charles II liked women's company and well as making love to them.

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history.

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.

Lives in previous centuries for women are largely a matter of class. It would have been fun to have been a rich, privileged woman in the 18th century, but no fun at all to be her maid.

I am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book.

My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor.

I can't read historical fiction because I find the real thing so much more interesting.

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.

The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema.

I decided as usual that justice lay in the middle - that is to say nowhere.

The skills of a leader will determine how excellent he will perform. His attitude will determine how often he will do that.

You know you are alone in marriage when your spouse is ignorant of your daily needs.

There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge

How many times can one have a heart attack within a week?

You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren't. You take the action, and the insight follows: You don't think your way into becoming yourself.

I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.

Delusion about history is a serious matter; it can gravely affect the history that is waiting to be made.

I never thought I was funny. I don't THINK funny.

If you work hard the fight's easy. If you don't work hard then the fight's hard.

Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.