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

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" 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. "

" 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. "

" I have lots of heroes and heroines, mostly unsung and including my husband. "

" I'm actually in a tradition of classicists with a big public face who like sounding off. "

" I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe. "

" My mother took me to the British Museum aged five. I had thought people from the past weren't as good as we were, and then I saw the Elgin marbles. Suddenly, the world seemed more complicated. "

" People who exploit others come to spend an enormous amount of energy wondering about and justifying that exploitation. "

" I'm very interested in how people in the 19th century travelled to Greece. "

" I have always thought the women's movement traded too much on outrage and not enough on ridicule. "

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

" The history of art is not just the history of artists; it is also the history of the people who viewed art. And that wider perspective can help us see some of the reasons why the art of the ancient world should still matter to us. "

" 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. "

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

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

" In general, I never think it is a good idea to try to recreate past successes. You have to strike out on your own, for better or worse. "

" Thinking through how you look to your enemies is helpful. That doesn't mean that your ideology is wrong and theirs is right, but maybe you have to recognise that they have one - and that it may be logically coherent. Which may be uncomfortable. "

" 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. "

" Wherever possible, I try to see things from the other side of the dividing line and to read civilisation 'against the grain.' "

" I would summarise my politics very simply as the maverick left and proud. "

" When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" The building blocks of discrimination tend to be similar wherever you find them. "

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

" You have to do what you feel comfortable with. "

" Grey is my hair colour. I really can't see why I should change it. "

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

" Greek myths, early Roman history, is configured around violence against women. And I think we need to get in there, get our hands dirty, face it, and see why and how it was. "