Claire Tomalin

Notable Quotes



I would like to have a more social life than I have.

From Claire Tomalin

I've behaved badly in my life. I hope I haven't behaved as badly as Dickens! In a way, if you're a woman, you're not in a position to behave as badly, because you don't have the economic power.

From Claire Tomalin

I would perhaps like to go back to writing small books about obscure people.

From Claire Tomalin

Dickens is a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings.

From Claire Tomalin

I was very priggish as a child. I saved up for a book on medieval English nunneries, for which I was despised by my friends.

From Claire Tomalin

I didn't start writing my own books until I was 40.

From Claire Tomalin

If I'm in a state about a book, I'll get up at 6 A.M. and write before breakfast, but usually I'll start afterwards and then work a full day with a break for lunch.

From Claire Tomalin

When I kept a diary, I realised that it was all moanings and depression, and I think that is quite common.

From Claire Tomalin

Essentially, I spent most of my childhood with my mother and my older sister, and I suppose I had rather a romantic vision of how things might be if there were men around; I saw myself in a country house with six children and a garden. That has never been achieved - and I still regret it.

From Claire Tomalin

It's a difficult thing to lose a child, a grown-up child.

From Claire Tomalin

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