Claire Tomalin Quotes

• All writers behave badly. All people behave badly.

  Claire Tomalin

  People, Behave

  "Claire Tomalin: 'Writing induces melancholy. You're alone, a hermit'". Interview with Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. September 24, 2011.

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• I enjoyed the whole process of learning and was always happy when autumn came and school or college started up again.

  Claire Tomalin

  School, Autumn, College

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• As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest, and he made up his mind to keep the year free of the pressure of producing monthly installments of yet another long novel.

  Claire Tomalin

  Tired, Successful, Years

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• All the people I have written about remain with me - perhaps they are my closest friends.

  Claire Tomalin

  People, Closest Friends, Closest

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• Everybody is vulnerable through love of their children. Hostages to fortune.

  Claire Tomalin

  Children, Vulnerable, Fortune

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• I've been trying to garden all my life - it just happens that I haven't had a big garden...until the past few years.

  Claire Tomalin

  Past, Garden, Years

  "'It's about death as much as it is about life'". Interview with Dominic Murphy, Martyn Cox, www.theguardian.com. October 27, 2006.

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• Biographers use historians more than historians use biographers, although there can be two-way traffic - e.g., the ever-growing production of biographies of women is helping to change the general picture of the past presented by historians.

  Claire Tomalin

  Past, Two, Use

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• The young Dickens was so alive, so self-confident, so funny.

  Claire Tomalin

  Self, Alive, Young

  "Claire Tomalin: 'Writing induces melancholy. You're alone, a hermit'". Interview with Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. September 24, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• By the time I went up to Cambridge, I was extremely quiet and well behaved, although I now meet people who remember me as not like that at all.

  Claire Tomalin

  People, Quiet, Remember

  "Under their skins". Interview with Aida Edemariam, www.theguardian.com. November 18, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

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