Quote

The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!

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

One of the many pleasures of 'Versailles' is the way in which it seems to emanate not only from the vexed inner being of Marie Antoinette but from the interstices between what we imagine of her and what she was.

The loss of liberty which must attend being a wife was of all things the most horrible to my imagination.

I think, first and foremost, Marie Antoinette was intellectually impoverished. She really had never been introduced to the notion of abstract thinking - of thinking at all in any profound way.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

I wouldn't say 'Frances Ha' is autobiographical, but it's definitely very personal.

Portraying Pocahontas' story well was important to me because she was a real person and these were real events in her life.

My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.

My favorite novels allow me to imagine the characters afterward and what happened, and that I've witnessed a really great story, where the world goes on.