I have always made an effort to render every detail of my reality with the greatest accuracy; but I have never paid attention to whether my presentation of historical facts was an exact one.

After closely examining my conscience, I venture to state that in my historical novels I intended the content to be just as modern and up-to-date as in the contemporary ones.

Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers about radio transmission.

I should add that it is open to debate whether what we call the writing of history these days is truly scientific.

Ever since my youth it has disturbed me that of the literary works that survived their own epoch, so many dealt with historical rather than contemporary subjects.

There's only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there's no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

An action doesn't have to be wrong just because it is not logical. It doesn't have to be right just because it has its logic.

Like the philosopher, the author views his task as one of establishing a clear connection between life and history, and of making the past bear fruit for the present and future.

What is a historian, anyway? It is someone who uses facts to record the development of humanity.

From depicting the past, so goes the suspicion, it is a short step to glorifying the past.

It is only the strong who are strengthened by suffering; the weak are made weaker.

The world is a contradiction

It is only when you take responsibility for your life that you discover how powerful you truly are

The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.

I had a lot of anger inside me and that came out at times that were not particularly advantageous to me career-wise.

Fathers are the geniuses of the house because only a person as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity.

I'd experienced the '40s and '50s by looking at my grandparents' old clothes, books, and magazines

There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich.

The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.

For me, the most important thing is that I feel comfortable with the actor that I'm working with and I'm able to talk to them.

If my cup won't hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?