“I am a huge admirer of Elizabeth I, and this intriguing biography gives a wonderful picture of the era.”

Priceless things matter not for their value, but because they offer us an enduring reminder of stability and permanence.

Even the most powerful woman needs a place to unwind.

When you are a strong woman, you will attract trouble. When a man feels threatened, there is always trouble.

The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.

In my opinion, moderation is a vastly overrated virtue, particularly when applied to work

I will never stop writing. People often ask when I will retire, but I say it’s none of their business. Writing defines who I am. I love the feeling of holding a finished book in my hands, and then I can’t wait to start the great adventure of writing the next one.

Elizabeth lay face-down on the massage table, and allowed Marco to relieve the stress of the business day with firm and knowing fingers. Success, she decided, was often a matter of knowing when to relax.

He who ascends to mountaintops, shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind Must look down on the hate of those below

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make to them; a man may live long, yet get little from life. Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will – Montaigne, Essays

She put her hand in his, and he clasped it firmly, knowing he had been waiting for her all his life.

A person with taste is merely one who can recognize the greatest beauty in the simplest things.

Always present yourself as a woman who expects to succeed.

Life was life. It happened. You never knew what was going to come at you. Or how you could defend yourself.

At the age of fifty-six Eleanor Stoddard was still a beautiful woman. She owned three hotels in France and another two in England. From nothing at all, she had built an empire. Eleanor had it all. Her one weakness was the young man sleeping beside her.

Life always gets harder towards the summit – the cold increases, responsibility increases

If anyone asks me whether I like being a popular writer, I ask them whether they think I’d rather be an unpopular writer.

Every novel is a biography. Well, then, this is a novel [The Paper Men] which is a biography that is pretending to be an autobiography. That’s what you could say about it.

However you disguise novels, they are always biographies.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

So as not to disturb me in my little nook behind the biography shelves.

I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people.

A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.

Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, censored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else.

[George] Uhlenbeck was a highly gifted physicist. One of his remarkable traits was he would read every issue of T%he Physical Review from cover to cover.