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" I was 11 when I started Latin - not like boys, who start early at prep school. At 14, you had to choose whether to start Greek and drop German, but my mum made a fuss, and I took Latin, Greek, French, and German at O-level, which meant I didn't do much science. "

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" 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. "

Mary Beard

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

" 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. "

" I was nearly struck by lightning on an excavation in Turkey. "

" There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us. "

" It's a bit naff, but there is something exciting about pulling a bit of pottery out of the ground that's 2,000 years old. "

" My mom was born before women had the vote in general elections in England. "

" 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?' "

" One of the downsides of working in antiquity is that you don't have many female voices, but you certainly have a lot of male terror about the potential of women's power. It shows you very clearly that the most oppressive cultures tend to be afraid of those whom they oppress. "

" I think most people gain some sense of how to look at a painting, but no one ever teaches you how to look at a piece of silver. "

" 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. "

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

" I'm an academic. I argue; I engage with people. "

" You always regret upsetting people needlessly. "

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

" There's a basic rule of thumb that the more a culture oppresses women, or oppresses anyone, the more culturally preoccupied they are with that. "

Mary Beard

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

" For whatever reason, some sorts of women's silence were broken by MeToo. This is the optimistic bit. And that will lead to a much more careful attention to women's voices. "

" 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? "

" If being a decent soul is being maternal, then fine. "

" I have always hated fancy dress parties. "

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

" The gloomiest way of describing the ancient world is it is misogyny from A to Z, really. "

" Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn't particularly matter what they look like. "

" The thing about being a university teacher is that you're fairly tolerant about young people saying things they shouldn't have said. "

" 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. "