The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be vast and perfectly clear. Yet the bane of the biographical existence is paper; if you're 'an artist under oath' you're writing from a mountain of documentation. — Stacy Schiff Copy Share Image
Life-writing calls for any number of dubious gifts: A touch of O.C.D., a lack of imagination, a large desk, neutrality of Swiss proportions, tactlessness, a high tolerance for archival dust. Most of all it calls for an act of displacement.… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share Image
Recently a study proved that working from a larger, less cluttered computer screen increases concentration. I could have told them that. And yes, I… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
“She did not believe Fate as painstaking as her husband; she was more inclined to take matters into her own hands. She had ample… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
What we know about Cleopatra's looks is based purely on her coin portraits. Engraving was imperfect, and that when you are a ruler and… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
No one in the modern world controls the wealth or territory that Cleopatra did. — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
“Against a powerful enchantress there is no contest. Against a woman who ensnares a man in the coils of her serpentine intelligence - in… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
“Nabokov complained he was afflicted with total recall, an affliction of which he could be miraculously cured by the presence of a biographer.” — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
“History existed to be retold, with more panache but not necessarily greater accuracy.” — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
“Véra assumed her married name almost as a stage name; rarely has matrimony so much represented a profession. It was one of the ironies… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
The interesting thing about Cleopatra is that she is such a shape-shifter. I mean through history we've all molded her to our times and… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For… — Stacy Schiff Copy Share
