Steven Saylor

All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?

— Steven Saylor

When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me the list of kings: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius the…

— Steven Saylor

Even the crudest, most derivative novel is an expression of the author's hopes and fears and ideas about good and evil.

— Steven Saylor

“The strands (the gods) weave out of our mortal lives are like a pattern visible only from the heavens; we here on…

— Steven Saylor

“on and on, he wasn’t the ranting sort,”

— Steven Saylor

I can't say I had an ideal father, and I'm not a father myself.

— Steven Saylor

Im like the painter with his nose to the canvas, fussing over details. Gazing from a distance, the reader sees the big…

— Steven Saylor

In politics, reality and appearance are of equal importance. You cannot attend to one and neglect the other. A man must determine…

— Steven Saylor

Some men are one thing on the surface and another underneath. The true poet shows not just the exterior of his subject,…

— Steven Saylor

“But sometimes...sometimes I wake with a mad thought in my head: What if that boy's life mattered as much as anyone else's,…

— Steven Saylor

Adrienne Mayor's inquiry into the myth--and surprising reality--of Amazon women begins with the fierce Greek huntress Atalanta, but takes us deep into…

— Steven Saylor

I'm like the painter with his nose to the canvas, fussing over details. Gazing from a distance, the reader sees the big…

— Steven Saylor

“Why have two figures of such remarkable interest been so scanted by the annalists and historians, so overlooked by philosophers, poets, and…

— Steven Saylor

“men ran to fill all ten positions. To pull that off required the cooperation of men who would normally have been your…

— Steven Saylor

There is a fine sense of freedom that comes from wandering about a familiar city with no particular destination in mind, with…

— Steven Saylor

“Bears?” Epaphroditus wrinkled his nose. “Everyone knows Prometheus was tormented by vultures. Every day they tore out his entrails, and every night…

— Steven Saylor

“There were a great many other such tableaux. As Martial had predicted, bears featured prominently in most of them. A temple thief…

— Steven Saylor

We all have a lot of people inside us, yet we get to live only one life. Fiction lets us slip into…

— Steven Saylor

“I kept secrets from you. I let you believe a lie. I am an impious son. But I made my choice, as…

— Steven Saylor

Not write what you know, but know what you write. If you write about a world before, after, or other than this…

— Steven Saylor

We all have a lot of people inside us, yet we get to live only one life. Fiction lets us slip into…

— Steven Saylor

Writing a first novel takes so much effort, with such little promise of result or reward, that it must necessarily be a…

— Steven Saylor

“There is nothing so unsure as the plans we make that rely on the sensible behavior of another human being.”

— Steven Saylor

“Men like Caesar and Pompey--they're not heroes, Meto. They're monsters. They call their greed and ambition "honour," and to satisfy their so-called…

— Steven Saylor

“...detachment from anger is one part of wisdom.”

— Steven Saylor