I was born with my eyes turned inward.

The Ritz Hotel was grand, sophisticated, and established, unlike me. The only thing we had in common was façade. Mine may not have been as ornate but it was equally phony. I was presenting myself...

Every old man that dies is a library that burns.

Malone’s commentary on Sonnet 93 was a defining moment in the history not only of Shakespeare studies but also of literary biography in general. What has emerged in our time as a dominant form of...

There were two worlds, two lives, for each person: this one–brief, narrow, finite; and the hereafter– eternal, limitless, infinite. Fame, to mean anything, should go with one into the next world, where one could enjoy...

I was sixteen and my mother was about to throw me out of the house forever, for breaking a very big rule, even bigger than the forbidden books. The rule was not just No Sex,...

The awful part of the writing game is that you can never be sure the stuff is any good.

No man is a caricature, no individual can alone bear responibilty for a nation’s collapse. The disaster Zaire became, the dull acquiescence of its people, had its roots in a history of extraordinary outside interference,...

She was an autocrat, didn’t really believe in democracy. The benefit of her approach was that, if you work with twenty people and ask everybody’s opinion, you would never achieve what she did.

As the wildly favorable word of mouth spread, however, the box office receipts began to soar. First, fans of musicals came. Then the ever-growing cadre of Julie Andrews devotees. Finally, those longing for a happy...

If it be good to come under the love of God once, surely it is good to keep ourselves there. And yet how reluctant we are!

Luggage and guests did not travel together … in fact, luggage went by a different route, so suitcases could be distributed to guest rooms before they arrived

Didn’t they teach you that in biography school?

Mechanically I carried on across the Irish Sea, noticing with a jaundiced eye that it had suddenly lost the sinister threat of no-man’s-land and was transformed into a placid highway where ferry-steamers would soon chug...

Gregor flushed as he went on: “The entire content of the Confesions could be put into one single sentence in the book: when Augustine addresses God, saying: ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself and our...

Many had suspected that the political disasters of the past few years had a hidden cause. The bloodiness of the French mob rule was something unnatural, with a pitiless and inhuman progression that had never...

I only read books I know I will like

Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.

The creative person should have no other biography than his works.

England has her Stratford, Scotland has her Alloway, and America, too, has her Dresden. For there, on August 11, 1833, was born the greatest and noblest of the Western World; an immense personality, — unique,...

She could do anything with dynamite, except eat it.

When you walk,go different roads that take you nowhere,and see your world.

He wasn’t a great man, but he had a great life.

But, mad or sane, Matthews was a man of no ordinary persistence. He was not prepared to renounce the peace plan, any more than he would be prepared to renounce his madness a few years...

If you put forth a small amount of effort, you just might find your next best friend for life is of a different race than your own.

Give me a fucking pre-med you fuckers, I’m a personal friend of Sir Lancelot Spratt.

Maybe he’d never come across anybody as well versed at objectifying body parts as I was. In my defense, this was an occupational hazard; one of the tricks of my trade was the ability to...

December 29, 1946: Snowing this morning. The year seems to be dying in a light white blanket. Only three more days of this year, then comes a new one. Then, what? No one knows. —...

Always do what you’re afraid to do”-Robert F. Kennedy

The Scripture can only be read intelligently by inspired men and women. The value we get from our reading is in direct proportion to the measure in which we are filled with God’s Spirit. We...

Before the magisterial mess of Trevor Thomas’s house, the orderly houses that most of us live in seem meagre and lifeless — as, in the same way, the narratives called biographies pale and shrink in...

World’s worst writer.” If you’re wondering why I rate all my work one star, it’s because the rating system doesn’t have a zero star option, or better yet, go into negative numbers.

Biography is one of the new terrors of death.

When will the human race choose wisely? All know it is just as eventful, if not more so, when the young seek adventure, purpose, and dreams; instead of blaming everyone but themselves if they choose...

Awake, my soul! Why should I give hours and days any longer to the vain world, when there is such a world of misery at my very door? Lord, put thine own strength in me;...

Other thoughtful year-round gestures to staff included silver picture frames for wedding anniversaries, flowers to ailing spouses, additional checks for medical bills and even a pet dog

This is the true story of my life, as told by a complete liar (me). While that sounds like an honest statement, it’s also a lie. I just can’t help myself. Unless I’m helping myself...

May be you find out I could be useful getting people out of camps and prisons in Germany – just before they got shot. I should love to do it and I like to jump...

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in...

Matthews’ shout of treason in the House was no random outburst of lunacy, but the last act in an astonishing adventure: one that might indeed have changed the history of Europe. But by this point...

if you want it really, you get it !!!

I can find my biography in every fable that I read

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

While some people are good at painting, playing an instrument or singing, I have been told more than once I am good at storytelling. I hope that you enjoy my stories as I recall them.

Obsessed with Christine to the end, his last statement as he left his cell was, ‘to kill is the final possession’. But Muldowney was wrong. He had never possessed Christine; the resistance burning within her...

it’s not about what to think,it’s about how to think.

Indeed, there is nothing on this earth more peaceful than a sleeping, purring cat.

Come the revolution, however, mesmerism was reconceived once more. From its beginnings many had seen it as an aristocratic fad: Mesmer (by this stage long gone to Germany and Switzerland) had made a fortune from...

But above all, an author must write passionately and edit passionately.

Amar es ponerse al cuello el nudo corredizo de la ilusión; adorar a alguien mientras pareces asfixiarte. Pero incluso el amor no correspondido, el amor fugaz, es mejor que nada.