Home
Authors
Tags
App

Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" The vanishing of David Tang is like the unthinkable diappearance of a magnificent palace on a mythical mountaintop. He was a dreammaker, pianist, adventurer, writer, entrepreneur, scholar, connoisseur, and a great friend. "

Simon Sebag Montefiore
Like
Great
Friend
Related Quotes:
" A book's title is vital. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Title
Vital
Book
" 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
" As a youth, I was much more of a Zionist. But Israel was very different then. Israel's changed, and so have I. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
More
Youth
Israel
" 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
" In the new Georgia, Stalin is no longer Georgian. He's a Russian emperor. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Georgia
Emperor
Stalin
" When I'm up, I'm over-exuberant; when I'm down, I just wander round on my own. I have no middle space. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Wander
Up
My Own
" 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
" 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
" 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
" Stalin, of course, never went on trial, but his legacy did. In 1956, three years after his death, he was denounced by Nikita Khrushchev. And his crimes were even more explicitly exposed by Mikhail Gorbachev during the late '80s. Yet to many, Stalin remains more legitimate as a Russian leader than anyone since. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Legacy
Late
Three
" 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
" My wife Santa is a fanatical skier, going to Klosters many times a year. To please her, I have for 12 years tried to ski, abseil, mountain-climb, para-scend, heli-ski, land-lauf, ice-skate, toboggan, luge, bobsleigh, yodel, gulp gluhwein, dunk bread in cheese fondue, or even walk in the mountains. I have failed at every one of these pursuits. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Bread
Cheese
Walk
" 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
Reward
Leader
Power
" Most history books are about power. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Most
About
Books
" 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
" I don't feel that Jewish people have a class. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
People
Jewish
Feel
" 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
" 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
" I don't like sports. I'm not interested in sports. I hate sports. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Like
Not Interested
Sports
" 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
Believe
" Historical fiction is simply fiction set in the past, and should be judged as such. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Historical
Past
In The Past
" 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
" 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
" When we were in school, we were told that Stalin was a madman who got control of Europe, which teaches you nothing. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Nothing
School
You
" 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
" A reforming liberal leader in Russia is the Holy Grail of Kremlinology, but the search for one is as misguided and hopeless as that for the relic of the Last Supper. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Hopeless
Liberal
Leader
" 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
" As colonial puppeteer and successful restorer of Russia as imperial superpower, Mr. Putin is Stalin's consummate heir. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Colonial
Russia
Superpower
" If only all straight weddings could be somehow gay-ified. "
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Could
Only
Somehow