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I wanted to write it long before I wrote Every Night, Josephine! I'd been thinking about it a long time.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

I had always been fascinated with Napoleon because he was a self-made emperor; Victor Hugo said, 'Napoleon's will to power,' and it was the title of my paper. And I submitted it to my teacher, and he didn't think I had written it. And he wanted me to explain it to him.

Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters.

I wrote the first draft of 'Madame Bovary' without studying the previous translations, although I gathered them and took the occasional peek.

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

I once read that there are more biographical works about Napoleon Bonaparte than any other man in history.

I care what my reader thinks. There is no fancy recommendation you can give me that would matter to me as much as Mary Jane from Youngstown writing me a letter. There is not one. Don't need it, don't want it, don't require it, does not fill up my soul. It's about her, not about the rest of it.

I save her marked-up manuscripts as an unluckier husband might save love letters.