British - Author | October 5, 1949 -
I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in my life have become the most important.
Peter Ackroyd
LifeHistoryMy LifeImportantThree
I never read in bed, only in my study.
BedNeverStudyOnlyRead
The English have always been greedy for news of times past, with that mixture of fatalism and melancholy which is part of the national character.
CharacterPastNewsAlwaysGreedy
To watch King Lear is to approach the recognition that there is indeed no meaning in life, and that there are limits to human understanding.
LifeKingLimitsUnderstandingHuman
People are much more interesting than people realise.
PeopleInterestingMoreThanMuch
I strike up conversations all the time and it is very interesting, finding out about things I know nothing about.
TimeInterestingFindingKnowStrike
If I did only one thing at a time I'd think I was wasting my time. If, for example, I only wrote novels I would feel like a charlatan and a fraud.
TimeThinkFeelFraudExampleWould
I don't in any sense think of myself as a celebrity, which of course I'm not.
MyselfThinkCelebritySenseCourse
There are so many characters whizzing around inside my head, it's like Looney Tunes. But as soon as I've finished writing about them, I completely forget who they are.
WritingForgetInsideHeadWhoSoon
Oh, I just tend to believe in things when I'm writing them. For instance, when I was writing 'Doctor Dee,' I believed in magic. And when I wrote 'Hawksmoor' I believed in psychic geography. But as soon as I type the last full stop, I'm back to being a complete blank again.
WritingDoctorBelieveMagicBack
In so far as I have any beliefs, I suppose I'm like that old Peggy Lee song, 'Is That All There Is?' I want to believe there's something else going on, but what that something else is I don't pretend to know.
SongBelieveKnowWantOldPretend
I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive.
ThinkPersonalMoreFictionThan
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