Writers often feel obliged to adopt some sort of public appearance. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
After Shakespeare, Dickens is the great creator of characters, multiple characters. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
I would perhaps like to go back to writing small books about obscure people. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
I think people are always saying things are 'over.' Fiction has been regularly 'over' since the 19th century. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
It's an odd situation: I could not write about someone for whom I felt no affection or admiration. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest,… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
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… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
Dickens never joined a political party nor put forward a political programme. He was a writer who rightly saw his power as… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share Image
“Poor Nelly, she was not to know that fashions in sin change as much as other fashions.” — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
I continually get more information about a subject after the book has been published. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
I was working at the 'Evening Standard' when I heard that there was a job going as deputy literary editor on the 'New Statesman.'… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
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… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
Simon Russell Beale is an incomparable speaker of Shakespeare and a superb all-round actor. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
I sometimes think that, since I started writing biographies, I've had more of a life in books than I have had in my real… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
Poetry was one of the things that interested me most as I was growing up. I used to write it in my head all… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
Biographers search for traces, for evidence of activity, for signs of movement, for letters, for diaries, for photographs. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
You become more tolerant when you become older. You're not interested in rapping people over the knuckles; you're interested in understanding them. — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
Dickens never joined a political party nor put forward a political programme. He was a writer who rightly saw his power as coming through… — Claire Tomalin Copy Share
