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.

To begin impatiently is the worst mistake a writer can make

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.

I think one of the great disasters (in military history) is the way that the Second World War has become the defining reference point for every crisis and every conflict.

What's happiness for a reader? Be pleasantly surprised by a book from which he expected nothing.

You cannot become great by working for salary.

If you make some comment even obliquely alluding to menstruation or menopause and its effect on my judgment, " Murphy interrupted, "I will break your arm in eleven places.

The shock of public hostility served as a stimulant. It made them acutely conscious of how society functioned.

It doesn't matter which leg of your table you make first, so long as the table has four legs and will stand up solidly when you have finished it.

As past presidents of the Liberal Party, we deeply regret and are greatly saddened by the precipitate action by some party officers and members at the Manila Hotel.

There is a huge agenda behind trying to destroy me and put me down.

It must be scary to stand up for beliefs also held by Eric Holder.

Even overweight cats instinctively know the cardinal rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses.

I never went to school for anything that I have done. I've never taken a class in singing, I never went to school for singing, acting, nothing. All I know is that it's a gift.