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Whenever I've had to tamper with history for plot purposes, I make sure to mention that in my author's note, and I try to keep such tampering to a bare minimum. I also attempt to keep my characters true to their historical counterparts. This is not always possible, of course.

The line of demarcation between history and legend is too thin to observe while writing; the two overlap each other unconsciously and unknowingly.

We have gotten away from this double aspect of either putting the character back into historical events or of making a historical event of his very life.

The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

In a certain way, novelists become unacknowledged historians, because we talk about small, tiny, little anonymous moments that won't necessarily make it into the history books.

Historical facts are the vital framework around which non-fiction writers construct their narratives; they are, quite simply, indispensable.

When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With a real historical figure you have to be fair, and this is not an obligation you have in dealing with your own creations, so it is quite different.

I never put out a history, I put out a dramatic history.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

I can't stand characters with contradictory information.