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" 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
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" Every time I give an interview, I seem to offend somebody in my family, usually my mother. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Time
Seem
Mother
" I love the flamboyance, the melodrama, the bloody theatre of Russian history. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Theatre
Love
I Love
" 'Daddy used to be a Georgian,' Stalin's son, Vasily, once said. Actually, the dictator didn't truly become Russian; he remained Georgian culturally. Yet he embraced the imperial mission of the Russian people. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Used
Son
Said
" Real stories - whether in pure fiction or historical - have a certain indefinable power; we are endlessly curious about the past and hungry for learning that we hope will illuminate the present. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Past
Learning
Hope
" 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
" 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
" Putin regards Stalin as a great tsar; he is a great tsar. Asked who the worst tsars were, he said Nicholas II and Gorbachev. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Stalin
He
Who
" As colonial puppeteer and successful restorer of Russia as imperial superpower, Mr. Putin is Stalin's consummate heir. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Colonial
Russia
Superpower
" 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
" 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
" 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
" I read many wonderful novels, though I now find the idea of literary fiction obsolete. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Fiction
Now
Wonderful
" 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
" Writing about Jerusalem was very stressful; every word counts. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
About
Word
Writing
" The unspoken contract between ruler and subject is that in return for safety, prosperity, and prestige, the Russians entrust power and cede democratic freedoms to their leaders. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Prosperity
Contract
Safety
" Trump wants to be the first American tsar. With his hero worship of Putin, his admiration for the apparent omnipotence of the Kremlin, schoolboyish crush on Putin's gangster swagger and his contempt for democracy, Trump wants to rule with his family, taking decisions purely because he's right about everything like a tsar. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Family
Hero
Democracy
" To make a Frankenstein monster of a complex character like Stalin would have been too simplistic. I wanted to show who he was and, if you like, how he happened. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Who
Show
You
" I don't feel that Jewish people have a class. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
People
Jewish
Feel
" I always find that the more Jewish you are, the more people respect you. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Find
You
Respect
" I enjoy tequila, which has a strange effect on people and makes parties more fun than warm white wine. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
People
Enjoy
Fun
" I was taught Shakespeare brilliantly by an eccentric genius at Harrow named Jeremy Lemmon who made me want to be a writer. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Genius
Me
Writer
" There is a view of Russian exceptionalism, that they are a unique civilisation, a view right since Ivan the Terrible that Russia is a special civilisation with a special culture. Putin is pushing that now. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
View
Special
Now
" It's the mix of the trivial and the great events that make up history. It's the low things about high people that make it fascinating, and that's why it would be a shame to exclude the trivial things. That mixing up is not just at the heart of history. It's at the heart of how to live a great life. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Great
Heart
History
" A crenelated wall of books encircles my bed, its tottering towers looming ever taller, always on the verge of collapsing onto oblivious sleepers. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Books
Towers
Wall
" President Trump is, some ways, the personification of a new Bolshevism of the Right, where the ends justify the means and acceptable tactics include lies and smears and the exploitation of what Lenin called 'useful idiots.' "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
New
Right
President
" We have far too many Tudors. Henry VIII is far too over-rated. He's become the ultimate brand name, like the Marks & Spencers of a high street of British history. I'm more interested in King Herod. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Street
History
King
" I don't like sports. I'm not interested in sports. I hate sports. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Like
Not Interested
Sports
" Around us, we do see attempts to delegitimize Israel, a sort of secret, hidden anti-Semitism growing in many countries, often on the right but also on the left. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Hidden
Growing
Right
" While most know the young Stalin was a seminarian, few realize that he was also a Georgian patriot, a published romantic poet. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Romantic
Know
Patriot
" All tyrannies are virtuoso displays, over many years, of cunning, risk-taking, terror, delusion, narcissism, showmanship, and charm, distilled into a spectacle of total personal control. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Personal
Over
Narcissism