Claire Tomalin

“I thought it was a glorious thing to be a critic and to be a literary editor, and one was really doing something that mattered: to keep up standards, to take books seriously.”

“I enjoyed the whole process of learning and was always happy when autumn came and school or college started up again.”

“Dickens is always full of surprises.”

“I continually get more information about a subject after the book has been published.”

“Writers often feel obliged to adopt some sort of public appearance.”

“I was very priggish as a child. I saved up for a book on medieval English nunneries, for which I was despised by my friends.”

“If I'm in a state about a book, I'll get up at 6 A.M. and write before breakfast, but usually I'll start afterwards and then work a full day with a break for lunch.”

“'Words and Music' on Radio 3 is always a treat. Actors read passages of poetry and prose interspersed with music, and nobody tells you what it is. Later you can look it up online, but at the time you can't cheat.”

“The thing I love about Rome is that is has so many layers. In it, you can follow anything that interests you: town planning, architecture, churches or culture. It's a city rich in antiquity and early Christian treasures, and just endlessly fascinating. There's nowhere else like it.”

“Biographers search for traces, for evidence of activity, for signs of movement, for letters, for diaries, for photographs.”

“I didn't start writing my own books until I was 40.”

“Throughout his life, Dickens cared passionately about orphans.”

“Biographers use historians more than historians use biographers, although there can be two-way traffic - e.g., the ever-growing production of biographies of women is helping to change the general picture of the past presented by historians.”

“Dickens was very practical and sensible.”

“I'm interested in history, in trying to relate the past to the present and to understand how people thought about their problems and pleasures.”

“By the time I went up to Cambridge, I was extremely quiet and well behaved, although I now meet people who remember me as not like that at all.”

“As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest, and he made up his mind to keep the year free of the pressure of producing monthly installments of yet another long novel.”

“I have been left-wing always, from childhood.”

“I was working at the 'Evening Standard' when I heard that there was a job going as deputy literary editor on the 'New Statesman.' I remember thinking, 'That's perfect.' It was three days a week, and I had children, but I could make that work - so I applied for it and got it.”

“I've behaved badly in my life. I hope I haven't behaved as badly as Dickens! In a way, if you're a woman, you're not in a position to behave as badly, because you don't have the economic power.”