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" I used to think that the British press were particularly awful to Cherie Blair. I think Blair's foreign policy was a complete disaster, but the British press, when they wanted to explain why Blair took unexpected moves, they did create Cherie as the power behind the throne. "

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" What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don't speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don't get the rhetoric right. I think that's a fair trade-off. "

Mary Beard

Price

Speak

Politicians

" You can't always worry about offending people. "

" When you look at me on the telly and say, 'She should be on 'The Undateables,'' you are looking at a 59-year-old woman. That is what 59-year-old women who have not had work done look like. Get it? "

Mary Beard

Women

Woman

" Beard's secret is always to be slightly on the edge but to pull back from disaster at the last minute. "

" Gender is a key marker of power and powerlessness. Most of the structures of how our world works are biased in terms of men. "

" I think you have to realize that most ancient warfare is really kind of hit and run, honestly. You go and you bash down the walls of some enemy 50 miles away and you take some slaves, you take some cattle, probably a bit of cash too, and then you say goodbye and go home and you probably do the same thing next year - or try to, or they do it to you. "

" I think, when I was 25, nobody in the world knew who I was. "

" I think that what will help women get into positions of power - well, day nurseries, equal pay, family-friendly working hours. And I think all that's important. I used to think it was the solution. I now think it's enabling, and it's important, but still we have got head work to do about this. "

" There is no argument that I won't take seriously. "

" A lot of sexism is just very silly... and the best response is laughter and ridicule. "

" There is nothing inherently conservative in the ancient world. "

" The web is democratising and also the voice of people who don't think they have another outlet. And that voice can be punitive. "

" In real life, Oxford and Cambridge are two excellent universities, like many others in the country. They are full of highly intelligent, hard-working, and quite ordinary students and teachers. "

" I remember plastering the kitchen with Black Power pictures of Angela Davis. "

" One of its most powerful weapons has always been 'barbarity': 'we' know that 'we' are civilised by contrasting ourselves with those we deem to be un-civilised, with those who do not - or cannot be trusted to - share our values. "

" If women are not perceived to be fully within the structures of power, surely it is power that we need to redefine rather than women? "

" Barring some sociopaths, probably, there is nobody who doesn't care about their appearance. "

" I loved 'Gladiator,' and I thought its depiction of gladiatorial combat, although it was an aggrandizing picture, was cleverly and expertly done. "

" If you ask me what is civilisation, it's little more than an act of faith. "

Mary Beard

You

Ask

" What is the role of an academic - no matter what they're teaching - within political debate? It has to be that they make issues more complicated. The role of the academic is to make everything less simple. "

" English country towns are often seen as a cultural wasteland, but the more cut off you are, the more the need to create things, to make your own culture. "

" We lived in the schoolhouse of the village school in Church Preen, in deepest Shropshire, and my mum was the schoolmistress. She taught the juniors, and one other teacher taught the infants. I went there from the age of three, no doubt as a form of childcare. "

" If you say to a group of women professors, 'Close your eyes and think of a professor,' what they will see is a guy. I will. And I'll stop myself and think, 'Hey, hang on, what am I doing here?' "

" I was into Black Power, and my practice Oxbridge essay was a rant. The headmistress said I'd never get in with that, but she was probably wrong. I was the ideal combination: a swot who was also a bad girl. "

" It's great fun being an academic because you have a certain licence to be a bit of a joker. "

" A lot of people will always say, 'I really know nothing about the ancient world.' But there's lots and lots of things people know. Partly, they've been encouraged to think they're ignorant about it. In some ways, the job to do is show people that they know much more than they'd like to admit. "

" I knew that Trump was ghastly. I knew I'd vote for Hillary if I had a vote. "

" There's plenty of firm evidence for ethnic diversity in Roman Britain. "

" My fantasy is going into a men's loo. And listening to what they say. "

" When I am making a TV show, I am looking for engagement, not admiration. "