Writing historical fiction has many common traits with writing sci-fi or fantasy books. The past is another country - a very different world - and historical readers want to see, smell and touch what it was like living there. - Sara Sheridan
The principle must always rule that ideas are not born of other ideas, philosophies of other philosophies; they are a continually renewed of real historical development. The unity of history (what the idealists call unity of the spirit) is not a presupposition, but a continuously developing process. - Antonio Gramcsi
Abraham Lincoln did not shoot John Wilkes Booth. Titanic did not sink a North Atlantic iceberg. And Fox News is neither fair nor balanced. These are simple historical facts intelligible to all adults, most children, and some of your more discerning domesticated animals. But not... to Bill O - Keith Olbermann
While what I write is always largely consistent with the records that remain I freely admit that where historical fact proves a barrier to invention, I simply move a detail a little one way or another. - Sara Sheridan
History was my favourite subject at school and in my spare time I read historical novels voraciously from Heidi to the Scarlet Pimpernel and from Georgette Heyer to Agatha Christie. - Sara Sheridan
The old always think the world is getting worse; it is for the young, equipped with historical facts, to point out that, compared with 1509, or even 1939, life in 2009 is sweet as honey. - Hilary Mantel
The places and people in the following stories have been represented accurately to the best of my ability; yet my writing is supposed to be a tale, and as in any historical novel, my own imagination has blended with fact to create poetical reality. - Eric Sloane
The pursuit of historical relevance is an under appreciated endeavor. - Michael Dwinnell
The pursuit of historical revelance is an under appreciated endeavor. - Michael Dwinnell
Historical definition of a country's borders... "...here's where my murder geography ends and your murder geography begins, at least until I get more murderers to expand my murder-fest. - Stefan Molyneux
Historical exclusivity often has a way of turning into present and institutionalized tragedy. Whose story gets told matters. - Aurin Squire
We're not talking about historical accuracy, we're talking about art. I've set in motion a geometric inevitability. If I start chiseling there, chipping here, the whole form is compromised. - David Assael
As discussed earlier, when it comes to music, most of us tend to have confidence in our taste even though we may totally lack knowledge regarding historical development or compositional theory. I frequently hear, "I don't know anything about art" but hardly ever, "I don't know anything about music". - Michael Findlay
I was asked the other day in which era I would choose to live. As a historical novelist, it comes up sometimes. As a woman I'd have to say I'd like to live in the future - I want to see where these centuries of change are leading us. - Sara Sheridan
The best historical stories capture the modern imagination because they are, in many senses, still current - part of a continuum. - Sara Sheridan
A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.
This is the moment when something once more begins visibly to happen, something truly new and unique...something truly historical, in the sense that history again demands to be heard. - Václav Havel
historical arguments; traditional apologetics breaks down here. Since man is here dealing with God and this by definition means with the invisible, impalpable, uncontrollable, only one attitude is appropriate and required : believing trust, trusting faith. - Hans Küng
As a historical novelist, there are few jobs more retrospective. - Sara Sheridan
These, he said gravely, are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant. - Aldous Huxley
History tells us what people do; historical fiction helps us imagine how they felt. - Guy Vanderhaeghe
Vietnam is a jungle. You had jungle warfare. Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, you have sand. [There is no need to worry about a protracted war because] from a historical basis, Middle East conflicts do not last a long time. - Dan Quayle
Hanging out is good historical methodology. - Jean Pfaelzer
I don't write fantasy; I write historical novels about an imaginary place. - Raymond E. Feist
No one is an outside observer of nature,We're defined by our environment and our interaction with that environment -- by our ecology. And that ecology is necessarily relative, historical and empirical. - Beau Lotto
Current utility and historical origin are different subjects. - Stephen Jay Gould
In this universe of ours, with its wealth of errors and legends, historical data and false information, one absolute truth is the fact that Superman is Clark Kent. All the rest is always open to debate. - Umberto Eco
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. --Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 - Wendy Goerl
My mind does not easily accept stately historical processions. - Zadie Smith
As a way of getting in touch with my originsevery night I set the alarm clockfor the time I was born so that waking upbecomes a historical reenactment and the first thing I do - David Berman
Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake. - Robert Penn Warren
As a novelist it is my job to tell stories that inspire and entertain but I am increasingly mindful that many of these historical tales (which of themselves are fascinating) relate directly to our issues in society today. - Sara Sheridan
The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves... - Paulo Freire
It’s Christmas, and no matter what historical usage you choose to assign to mass be it mission or Lord’s Supper, Christ’s Mass refers to WHY he came, not THAT he came. Christ’s mission was to be a sacrifice. - William Branks
When we can’t see ourselves in our history, we begin to think that we are disconnected and suffering alone. Historical ignorance always precedes cultural imbalances and individual despair. - Aurin Squire
Historical revisionists find what they set out to find. - Gregg Frazer
What makes the Arabs suitable candidates for democracy is their heritage as human beings, not their specific cultural or historical antecedents. - Gwynne Dyer
Archive material is vital to the writer of historical fiction. - Sara Sheridan
When female stories are muted, we are teaching our kids that their dignity is second class and the historical accounts of their lives [are] less relevant. This lowered value carries over when women face sexual objectification and systemic brutalization from inside and outside the community. - Aurin Squire
Facts do not become historical evidence until someone thinks up something for them to prove or disprove. - Cary Carson