Antonia Fraser Quotes

Of course there's no such thing as a totally objective person, except Almighty God, if she exists.

It is a fact that, being a quick reader, apart from enabling a person to study good books such as Macaulay and Gibbon, enables a person to read a lot of bad books as well.

As the Dauphine stepped out of her carriage on to the ceremonial carpet that had been laid down, it was the Duc de Choiseul who was given the privilege of the first salute. Presented with the Duc by Prince Starhemberg, Marie Antoinette exclaimed: 'I shall never forget that you are responsible for my happiness!

I realize that I had always in my heart of hearts planned to write a biography of Marie Antoinette.

[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.

My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor.

I think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't.

As long as you persecute people, you will actually throw up terrorism.

Mignon' said the King, 'soon you are going to be a great king'. But he also told Anjou, in a memorable phrase
'Try to remain at peace with your neighbors: I have loved war too much ...

My mother was a politician in my formative years.

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema.

If I write that it was a cold day, you can be sure I know it was a cold day because Pepys told us.

I'm glad I was never an heiress.

I hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell.

People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police.

Her imperturbable self-confidence (Duchesse de Maine) caused Madame de Stael to write that the Duchesse believed in herself the same way she believed in God, without explanation or discussion.

I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all. marie antoinette

I decided as usual that justice lay in the middle - that is to say nowhere.

She saw that supreme dignity - and love - lay in tolerance.

The deep division that exists in the human race, regardless of any other more obvious distinction, between those for whom books are an obsession, and those who are prepared, good-humouredly enough, to tolerate their existence.

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life.

My mother, who was quite sharp when I was young, became utterly mild.

I don't like it, but this afternoon I've told myself I am going to go and get a dress.

After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell.

Ninety-seven is my lucky number.

Darnley, who, like Banquo's ghost, seemed to play a much more effective part in Scottish politics once he was dead than when he was alive.

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history.

I love hearing details of writers' craft, as cannibals eat the brains of clever men to get cleverer.

I think crime writing is my link with trying to preserve a sort of order.

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.

People cannot help their predilections, although they may conceal them.