356 Quotes by Deborah Harkness

  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    I teach 18- to 21-year-olds - the 'Harry Potter' generation. They grew up as voracious readers, reading books in this exploding genre. But at some point, I would love for them to give Umberto Eco or A.S. Byatt a try. I hope 'A Discovery of Witches' will serve as a kind of stepping-stone.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    The plain truth is that the period I study is the 16th century, and they were absolutely obsessed with witches and spiritual beings.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    The world of scholarship is much more measured in its appreciation and also its criticism than the world of popular literature.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    As a historian, I love every little detail, but whole long passages about wood paneling and journeys on horseback and every stop at every inn had to go out the window. I decided the history in the books should be like spice in a soup - a little went a long way. Like cilantro.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    Magic provides a way of still having room for possibilities, an unlimited sense of what the world offers. Magic is always there when science is found wanting.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    I'm a storyteller, and I have really good material to work with: I've been studying magic and the occult since about 1983.

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  • Author Deborah Harkness
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    I'd studied 16th century science and magic. I thought it was strange that people were interested in the same kinds of things my research was about. The more I thought about it, the more intriguing it became and pretty soon I was writing a novel about a reluctant witch and a 1500-year-old vampire.

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