I do not start with a full knowledge of the facts; the whole attraction of writing history is to educate myself: it is an exploration into the unknown - 'a journey without maps,' to borrow Graham Greene's phrase.

I don't give plots to Harold Robbins or Graham Greene, because they don't need them, but a lot of authors do.

Never reveal all of yourself to other people; hold back something in reserve so that people are never quite sure if they really know you.

I always thought of myself as a kind of literary bureaucrat. And that was never going to be enough for me.

Mr. Brown was writing a novel, and these kinds of finer details of history presumably weren't at the forefront of his mind.

It is curious that the two best-known British historians in the United States are Andrew Roberts and Niall Ferguson, each of whom represents, in fact, a different school of serious historical writing, and both of whom seem to have gained for themselves, perhaps without intending to, a special reputation on the American right.