Antonia Fraser Quotes & Sayings

I don't like it, but this afternoon I've told myself I am going to go and get a dress. — Antonia Fraser

I can't read historical fiction because I find the real thing so much more interesting. — Antonia Fraser

The deep division that exists in the human race, regardless of any other more obvious distinction, between those for whom books are an obsession, and those who are prepared, good-humouredly enough, to tolerate their existence. — Antonia Fraser

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life. — Antonia Fraser

My mother, who was quite sharp when I was young, became utterly mild. — Antonia Fraser

She saw that supreme dignity - and love - lay in tolerance. — Antonia Fraser

very last answer which Paulet and Buckhurst were prepared to — Antonia Fraser

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history. — Antonia Fraser

I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all. marie antoinette — Antonia Fraser

Of course there's no such thing as a totally objective person, except Almighty God, if she exists. — Antonia Fraser

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous. — Antonia Fraser

It lies in humanity's infinite capacity for self-deception where some perceived (and in this case long-desired) advantage is at stake — Antonia Fraser

People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police. — Antonia Fraser

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema. — Antonia Fraser

King Charles II liked women's company and well as making love to them. — Antonia Fraser

I decided as usual that justice lay in the middle - that is to say nowhere. — Antonia Fraser

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing. — Antonia Fraser

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies. — Antonia Fraser

Mary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special. — Antonia Fraser

I think crime writing is my link with trying to preserve a sort of order. — Antonia Fraser

Mignon' said the King, 'soon you are going to be a great king'. But he also told Anjou, in a memorable phrase
'Try to remain at peace with your neighbors: I have loved war too much ... — Antonia Fraser

My mother was a politician in my formative years. — Antonia Fraser

I'm glad I was never an heiress. — Antonia Fraser

[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman. — Antonia Fraser

If I write that it was a cold day, you can be sure I know it was a cold day because Pepys told us. — Antonia Fraser

I hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell. — Antonia Fraser

After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell. — Antonia Fraser

I am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book. — Antonia Fraser

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

As long as you persecute people, you will actually throw up terrorism. — Antonia Fraser

Her imperturbable self-confidence (Duchesse de Maine) caused Madame de Stael to write that the Duchesse believed in herself the same way she believed in God, without explanation or discussion. — Antonia Fraser

I have no plans for a future Jemima Shore mystery, but would write one tomorrow if a good idea came to me. — Antonia Fraser

People cannot help their predilections, although they may conceal them. — Antonia Fraser

It is a fact that, being a quick reader, apart from enabling a person to study good books such as Macaulay and Gibbon, enables a person to read a lot of bad books as well. — Antonia Fraser

Lives in previous centuries for women are largely a matter of class. It would have been fun to have been a rich, privileged woman in the 18th century, but no fun at all to be her maid. — Antonia Fraser

I love hearing details of writers' craft, as cannibals eat the brains of clever men to get cleverer. — Antonia Fraser

I'm very interested in good and evil and the moral natures of people. — Antonia Fraser

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! — Antonia Fraser

My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor. — Antonia Fraser

Was Charles I too stubborn to listen to reason? Could Civil War have been averted if the king had been more willing to negotiate? His great enemy Cromwell always maintained that the king had been swayed at the last moment by his queen, the beautiful Henrietta Maria. We can believe Cromwell's claim that the queen told her husband to be firm. But the wicked, spiteful, altogether irresistable quote often attributed to her by Puritan writers of the time is almost certainly false.
Oh my love, if you cannot remain firm in the bedchamber, at least try to remain firm with your subjects! — Antonia Fraser

Ninety-seven is my lucky number. — Antonia Fraser

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged. — Antonia Fraser

As the Dauphine stepped out of her carriage on to the ceremonial carpet that had been laid down, it was the Duc de Choiseul who was given the privilege of the first salute. Presented with the Duc by Prince Starhemberg, Marie Antoinette exclaimed: 'I shall never forget that you are responsible for my happiness! — Antonia Fraser

sunken to that of an old woman in the harsh disguise — Antonia Fraser

Though Charles II both craved and enjoyed female companionship till the end of his life, there is no question that by the cold, rainy autumn of 1682 his physical appetites had diminshed considerably. The Duchess of Portsmouth was, after all, more than twenty years his junior; and there comes a time in nearly every such relationship when the male partner is simply unable to fully accommodate the female partner. Or as Samuel Pepys tartly noted in his diary, the king yawns much in council, it is thought he spends himself overmuch in the arms of Madame Louise, who far from being wearied, seems fresher than ever after sporting with the king. — Antonia Fraser

Darnley, who, like Banquo's ghost, seemed to play a much more effective part in Scottish politics once he was dead than when he was alive. — Antonia Fraser

I think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't. — Antonia Fraser