121 Quotes by David Starkey

If you really want people to pay attention to how you feel, you need to express your feelings in language that's worth reading.

Compare the scale and magnifcence of Versailles with St James's - the brick-built hovel in which the 18th-century kings of England lived. What was then the most powerful monarchy in the world housed its sovereigns in a converted leper hospital, yet, at the same time, parliament provided the magnificent palaces of Chelsea and Greenwich as hospitals for retired soldiers and sailors.

I think I give far more space and play to avant-garde writing than any other contemporary textbook author. I want students to be able to decide for themselves which aesthetics are closest to their own. Still, while I try not to be a nostalgist myself, I suppose I am drawn to those poignant moments in our lives, rendered clearly and artfully.

I think it's probably true that creative people are touched by melancholy more than the average person, and to the extent that delving into that shadow world produces good work, I'm all for it. But I think you have to be able to step back from the work, and say, "Look how miserable I felt. Look how beautifully I wrote about it. Now I'm going to get an iced coffee and chat with a friend." Writing should be a way out of despair.

Out of the chaos of post-Roman Dark Age Britain, the English had created the world's first nation-state: One king, one country, one church, one currency, one language and a single unified representative national administration. Never again in England would sovereignty descend to the merely regional level. Never again would the idea of England and the unity of England ever be challenged.

Those type of elegant black tie events, for whatever reason, didn't continue into the late 20th century, and we have heard countless stories about them from our patrons and we wanted to offer that.

It has gone from a smooth operation to a fuss and now a farce.

The immediate presumption must be that she is Princess of Wales. People may think that the Diana phenomenon is almost as faded as her fountain (undergoing repairs at London's Hyde Park), but there will be Diana-maniacs who will get cross.

If you really want people to pay attention to how you feel, you need to express your feelings in language that’s worth reading.