Sharon Kay Penman

“Outside, the sky was clear, stars gleaming in its ebony vastness like celestial fireflies. It was bitterly cold, and Hywel's every breath…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“He'd never seen one so vibrant, though, or so vividly compelling... those glowing green eyes sparkling with sunlight and curiosity and silent…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“We've schemed and fought and loved until we are so entangled in hearts and minds that there is no way to set…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“You seem to forget, Dickon, that we are dealing with the Spider King. Louis realized, just as you have, that it would…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“I asked Simon if he’d ever feared that all our struggles, all our suffering might be in vain. Not a priest’s question,…

— Sharon Kay Penman

In writing my historical novels, I have to rely upon my imagination to a great extent. I think of it as 'filling…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“I once came upon a definition of history as ‘the process by which complex truths are transformed into simplified falsehoods’. That is…

— Sharon Kay Penman

My novels about medieval Wales were set in unexplored terrain; my readers did not know what lay around every bend in the…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“Otherwise, I’d like nothing better than…conversing with you. You’re such a deep, penetrating conversationalist, after all,”

— Sharon Kay Penman

Poor Wales. So far from Heaven, so close to England.

— Sharon Kay Penman

“Richard grinned, very pleased with himself for having found a way to honor his mother, thwart his father, and serve God, while…

— Sharon Kay Penman

I was actually born in New York City, but my family moved to Atlantic City when I was five, this being my…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“In time of war, the Devil makes more room in Hell.”

— Sharon Kay Penman

“You asked what the Londoners wanted of you, and he…he said ‘ballocks.”

— Sharon Kay Penman

“...for he of all men knew how dangerously stubborn Henry Fitz Empress could be. There were faint bloodstains upon the tiles in…

— Sharon Kay Penman

I certainly know all about the Jersey jokes that amuse the rest of the country. You've probably heard them. Our state bird…

— Sharon Kay Penman

I'd not want to answer for the lives of other men; not at seventeen, by God's Grace.

— Sharon Kay Penman

“Well, dearest, what would you tell a farmer who had an over-abundant harvest? To plant less, of course!"... "I am not complaining…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“Richard knew, of course, that his was thought to be an unlucky title; only twice before had a Richard ruled England, and…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“In the past few months, life had lost its sweetness and he’d lost his way. But no longer. Death was once again…

— Sharon Kay Penman

…she remembered watching a summer sunset from this very spot. Not so long ago; just a lifetime.

— Sharon Kay Penman

“He could still remember how breathtakingly beautiful Eleanor was that day. He'd have been content to gaze into her eyes for hours,…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“There was even a small groundswell of sympathy for George, confined mainly among those who’d had no personal contact with him.”

— Sharon Kay Penman

“More than men had died at Lincoln. It seemed to Stephen that reality was a casualty, too, for nothing made sense anymore.…

— Sharon Kay Penman

“In my life, I've been both the besieged and the besieged, and I know damned well which I prefer!”

— Sharon Kay Penman