Simon Sebag Montefiore

I don't feel that Jewish people have a class.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Russian writers enjoy almost sacred status.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Every love story is a requiem.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

A book's title is vital.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Edith Wharton with the death penalty”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Love is a question of geography.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Most history books are about power.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“spoken to Malamore like this, ever. He wheeled around towards Dirlewanger,”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

In the new Georgia, Stalin is no longer Georgian. He's a Russian emperor.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“What's important is not who YOU love but WHO loves you.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I'd like to write a biography of Ivan the Terrible.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

When I was young, I always wanted to go to Russia.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Is there any greater blessing than to love and be loved.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I read many wonderful novels, though I now find the idea of literary fiction obsolete.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I am ashamed to say that both my children knew Stalin before they knew Thomas the Tank Engine.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Beneath the eerie calm of these unfathomable waters were deadly whirlpools of ambition, anger and unhappiness.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Mugabe's resignation fascinates because the fall of tyrants is always a family story, decline of the father, writ large. What a strange…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

There are few words in Russian for the Western concept of 'law,' but there are legions of words for connections, helping people…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“War was simply a slaughterhouse on wheels, he thought. For most men, soldiering was tragedy expressed as a profession.”

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

When we were in school, we were told that Stalin was a madman who got control of Europe, which teaches you nothing.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Bolshevism was a mind-set, an idiosyncratic culture with an intolerant paranoid wordview obsessed with abstruse Marxist ideology.

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I see the world as an adventure thriller and a voyage of discovery. To me, all lives are lives of mystery and…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Iraq was already in the grip of a bloody insurgency against British rule. Churchill therefore called a conference in Cairo to hand…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

My wife Santa is a fanatical skier, going to Klosters many times a year. To please her, I have for 12 years…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I was driving across Georgia with a warlord and his bodyguards riding shotgun with their Kalashnikovs in a convoy of Mercedes and…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

President Yeltsin's instincts were decent: he encouraged the marketplace, the press flourished, and everything started to open - even the KGB archives.…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

I'm not disciplined at all. I barely function. But I get a lot done. I take days off all the time, but…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Daddy used to be a Georgian,' Stalin's son, Vasily, once said. Actually, the dictator didn't truly become Russian; he remained Georgian culturally.…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

We have far too many Tudors. Henry VIII is far too over-rated. He's become the ultimate brand name, like the Marks &…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“The discipline that aims to be objective and scientific can be used to rationalize religious-ethnic prejudiced and justify imperial ambitions. Israelis, Palestinians…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“subjects nicknamed him Epumanes – the Madman. But there was method in his madness for he hoped to bind his empire together…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“The Jews sought refuge in their synagogues, but the Crusaders set them on fire. The Jews were burned alive, almost a climactic…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Faced with Russian menace and Ottoman collapse, Britain and France threatened war. Nicholas stubbornly called their bluff because, he explained, he was…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Now in Medina, with its Jewish clans, he created the first mosque,a adopting the Jerusalem Temple as the first qibla, the direction…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Jemal hanged two Jewish spies in Damascus, then he announced the deportation of all Jerusalem’s Jews: there would no Jews left alive…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Party-mindedness” was “an almost mystical concept,” explained Kopelev. “The indispensable prerequisites were iron discipline and faithful observance of all the rituals of…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Šta bi bilo kada bih ti sad rekao, bez glupiranja, da kroz ova vrata ulazimo u tajni svet u kojem niko ne…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

“When a minister impertinently threatened to resign, he seized him by the collar and shouted, ‘Shut up! When I choose to kick…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

Gay weddings will be remembered as Tony Blair's greatest achievement!

— Simon Sebag Montefiore