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" Colonel Qaddafi's tyranny was absolutist, monarchical, and personal. The problem with such dictatorships is that as long as the tyrant lives, he reigns and terrorizes. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Tyranny
Problem
He
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" I love the heat and the excitement of Israel, and I will always love Jerusalem. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Always
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Excitement
" The West is pathetically naive about Russian reformers. We long to believe they are real liberals, but no liberal will ever rule Russia. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Long
Will
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" Every Russian emperor from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin knows a leader and his security agencies must never be parted. His safety depends on their slavish devotion. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
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Never
" Russia is so feudal in its system of patronage and reward that it is virtually impossible for a leader to hand over power without controlling his successor or at least receiving an exemption from prosecution - something Mr. Putin granted his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, in 1999. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
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Power
" I'm the sort of person who, if I arrive in a city under siege, in the middle of nowhere, I'll always find my way to the leader of the rebels. I just don't know how. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Leader
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" I don't think Jerusalem should be controlled 100% by religious people of any denomination, sect, or religion - even my own. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Think
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People
" Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Historical
Past
In The Past
" As a teenager, I had a weakness for freedom fighters. When Mugabe came to London to negotiate independence, I vanished from home to stand outside his hotel. I was very disappointed that he looked like a dorky teacher. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Home
Teacher
Freedom
" No one can take away the experience of Yeltsin's freedoms, but Russian democracy will never follow Western models: other authoritarian 'controlled democracies' - Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico - ultimately developed into democracies. But it took decades. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Experience
Mexico
Democracy
" The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the last years of Russian autocracy. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Life
Memoirs
Years
" Unlike monarchs, who pass power to their heirs at the moment of death to ensure the survival of the regime, tyrants must simply survive as long as possible. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Long
Death
Survival
" One of the strange things about doing publicity is that a mistake in a newspaper profile long ago is repeated and amplified over time. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Doing
Time
Strange
" If only all straight weddings could be somehow gay-ified. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Could
Only
Somehow
" I am a passionate nonfinisher. Life is too short, and there are too many great books to read, so if I lose interest or respect, I switch. But when, of course, when you really fall in love with a book, all the others are ignored. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Love
Respect
Great
" The disorder, uncertainty, and strife of a revolution make citizens yearn for stable authority, or they turn to radicalism. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Turn
Authority
Uncertainty
" I'm an enormous fan of American literature, and especially the great novels of Larry McMurtry, 'Lonesome Dove,' Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Literature
American
Dove
" Mugabe's resignation fascinates because the fall of tyrants is always a family story, decline of the father, writ large. What a strange creature he is. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Father
Family
He
" Every time I give an interview, I seem to offend somebody in my family, usually my mother. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Time
Seem
Mother
" Gay weddings will be remembered as Tony Blair's greatest achievement! "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Will
Remembered
Gay
" In 1942, the Germans were running out of fuel. They were advancing so fast across the grasslands, the hot grasslands of south Russia, and the Russians were running out of tanks. And so both of them turned to cavalry, and there were great cavalry battles on the grasslands. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Running
Battles
Hot
" As colonial puppeteer and successful restorer of Russia as imperial superpower, Mr. Putin is Stalin's consummate heir. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Colonial
Russia
Superpower
" With popular rulers, the wife can become the guardian of their greatness: Peter the Great was succeeded by his wife, Catherine I. Sometimes the wives are an improvement. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Improvement
Greatness
Great
" I don't feel that Jewish people have a class. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
People
Jewish
Feel
" There are few words in Russian for the Western concept of 'law,' but there are legions of words for connections, helping people from one's neck of the woods. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Connections
People
Law
" I am ashamed to say that both my children knew Stalin before they knew Thomas the Tank Engine. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Am
Say
I Am
" Writing fiction is very different to writing non-fiction. I love writing novels, but on history books, like my biographies of Stalin or Catherine the Great or Jerusalem, I spend endless hours doing vast amounts of research. But it ends up being based on the same principle as all writing about people: and that is curiosity! "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
People
Curiosity
Great
" Believe it or not, some Western analysts in the 1930s insisted that Stalin was a 'moderate,' controlled by extremists like the secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Some
Police
Like
" The political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is a private matter, but the death of a tyrant is always a political act that reflects the character of his power. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Death
Leader
Long
" Bolshevism was a mind-set, an idiosyncratic culture with an intolerant paranoid wordview obsessed with abstruse Marxist ideology. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Obsessed
Paranoid
Culture
" I'm the last person who would end up doing something that needs meticulous compilation of facts. It's totally against my character. I live by impulse. I'm totally ill-suited to writing history books. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Writing
End
Character