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One thing I like about historical fiction is that I'm not constantly focusing on me, or people like me; you're obliged to concentrate on lives that are completely other than your own.

I like writing historical fiction.

Obviously, I love to do both contemporary and historical fiction. When a hint of a story grabs me, I try to go with it to see where it will take me whatever the setting.

Oddly enough, my favorite genre is not fiction. I'm attracted by primary sources that are relevant to historical questions of interest to me, by famous old books on philosophy or theology that I want to see with my own eyes, by essays on contemporary science, by the literatures of antiquity.

I'm not a great fiction reader. I love history. I love history and philosophy.

I tend to like to read history - recent history, because I find that much more intriguing than just a writer's imagination.

I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe.

I've always been drawn to historical fiction.

I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.

I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read.