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" I think the only difference between me and other people is that when I hear of an interesting historical incident, I immediately write it down and Google it. "

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" Identity politics are wearisome; you don't want to go on speaking for any one group as a writer. "

" I'm named after Jane Austen's Emma, and I've always been able to relate to her. She's strong, confident but quite tactless. "

" I hate desks; they make me feel like a child doing homework. "

" I remember a period where my publisher said to me, 'Look, your historical work is selling much better than your contemporary work, so please give us more historicals.' "

" I tend to be so lost in the work that I don't notice the weather. My partner will come home and say, 'Beautiful day, wasn't it?' and I'll say, 'Was it?' as I won't have noticed the real world at all. "

" I'm constantly saying, 'I read a fascinating article in 'The New Yorker'... ' I say it so often that sometimes I think I have nothing interesting to say myself, I merely regurgitate 'The New Yorker.' "

" I got in the habit of giving away a book as soon as I've finished it because I lived in a housing co-op at Cambridge and had no space to keep books. "

" Any parent knows how to be the ideal parent. "

" I have never been depressed or thrown a plate, which I attribute to the cathartic effects of writing books about people whose lives are more grueling than mine. "

" I'm a huge planner, more and more so as the years go by. "

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" I am clumsy, a late and nervous driver, and despise all sports except a little gentle dancing or yoga. "

" Every parent has those moments where they look at their child and think, 'There's a demon in those eyes and no one can see it but me!' "

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" For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have. "

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" There's no neutral language about travel. Either travel is described in ways that make it sound kind of shallow or just glossy or silly or a way for rich people to spend their time; or else travel is often described in quite derogatory ways, you know, like immigrants swarming across borders, for instance. "