120 Quotes by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Writing about Jerusalem was very stressful; every word counts.

I don't feel that Jewish people have a class.

As a youth, I was much more of a Zionist. But Israel was very different then. Israel's changed, and so have I.

There is a view of Russian exceptionalism, that they are a unique civilisation, a view right since Ivan the Terrible that Russia is a special civilisation with a special culture. Putin is pushing that now.

Putin regards Stalin as a great tsar; he is a great tsar. Asked who the worst tsars were, he said Nicholas II and Gorbachev.

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.

Writing about Jerusalem can be such a minefield.

I always wanted to write a history of Jerusalem.

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.