Simon Sebag Montefiore Quotes
Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such.
Quotes to Explore
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When you write, you don't have the social constraints of having people in front of you, so you talk about abstract matters.
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Man was created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord and in this way to save his soul. The other things on Earth were created for man's use, to help him reach the end for which he was created.
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May we be saved from evil thoughts and deed of enemies of world peace who find pleasure in creating havoc and perpetrating all forms of carnage.
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Growing up in a particular neighborhood, growing up in a working-class family, not having much money, all of those things fire you and can give you an edge, can give you an anger.
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I wanted to be a ballet teacher.
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Certain subjects may no longer be taboo in cinema. But there are ways to treat them that still create shock.
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Neutrality, as a lasting principle, is an evidence of weakness.
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Being a recognised face has its problems. I miss the freedom to go anywhere I want to.
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I would argue that Asean has been instrumental in driving both economic growth and political development, and that there can be no clearer example than its relations with Myanmar.
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I was a weird but definite kid, and there were essentially no gender roles for me to fit into.
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I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings.
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I am lucky because I can - and I like to - mix the beautiful Caraceni jackets I inherited from my grandfather with a pair of Tsubi jeans or wear a favorite pin-striped suit from him for more formal occasions. I'm crazy about pinstripes and vintage fifties fabrics.
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I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.
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Teaching was my first job after leaving university. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed it. Some of the kids were disruptive, but I could deal with it because I was only 24 at the time, and my own school memories were still fresh.
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It certainly was unusual growing up with two fairly well-known pastors as my parents.
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I found myself doing all these action-adventure movies, and it's been a fantastic experience, and I've learnt a lot.
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People forget that writers start off being readers. We all love it when we find a terrific read, and we want to let people know about it.
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The black man should seek to be, and he should be encouraged to be, the best possible black man and not the best possible imitation of a white man.
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I like to read and listen to music and go for walks and travel and see art. I enjoy cooking and eating and spending time with my family. I don't really find myself searching for things on the television very much.
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Any Southern nationalist movement, especially one that wraps itself in the Confederate flag, is going to be viewed with suspicion, given the historical record.
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There have been failures in the past, and I know there will be in future as well. But I have learnt from them.
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We are always remaking history. Our memory is always an interpretive reconstruction of the past, so is perspective.
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A relatively small and eternally quarrelsome country in Western Europe, fountainhead of rationalist political manias, militarily impotent, historically inglorious during the past century, democratically bankrupt, Communist-infiltrated from top to bottom.
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Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such.
