After all, that's why we read historical fiction-to be transported to another time, and to be astonished at ancient people's lives and traditions, just as they would probably be astonished at ours.

There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate. —MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

I held Nefertiti's body closer to mine, trying to press her spirit into me, to bring it back. But the reign of Nefertiti was finished. She was gone from Egypt.

there is nothing to fear but fear itself yet even then fear shouldn't be feared because fear cannot take what is protected by change

the one for whom the sun shines.. -Ramses II

You can't change the desert. You can only take the fastest course through it. Wishing it's an oasis won't make it so.

Sometimes, it is not the kings and queen who make for the most fascinating history but the shadowy souls who happen to be in the right place at the right time.

I'd always thought I would feel like an animal released from its cage when my student days were finished, I felt more like a bird that had been pushed from its nest and told it must fly.

Nothing is forever...nothing lasts.

But we are all sorry when loss comes for us. The test of our character comes not in how many tears we shed but in how we act after those tears have dried.

I don't think unhappiness is fated.

And the eye became a body, the murky heart of a rose. The sinister shadow of an orchid. Or the indolent poppy balanced behind the ear of Baudelaire.

Lyrically I write based on my past experiences or things I wish to experience. Pain inspires me as does joy.

After money in the bank, a grudge is the next best thing.

Excellence or virtue in a man will be the disposition which renders him a good man and also which will cause him to perform his function well.

It is possible to wish so greatly for the unattained that in time you believe it has been won - indeed, you can even remember the winning of it.

I love performing live: it's my very favorite thing to do.

It's not that people want too much, it's that they want too little.

People are like books, unknown until they are opened.

Great interests demand great safeguards.

Another thing I liked about my Dad at church: he did his sleeping at home. He never used the church as an adult nursery.