Even the crudest, most derivative novel is an expression of the author’s hopes and fears and ideas about good and evil.

What appalling tales we shall have to tell of the strange lands we visited; and of those lands, surely none was stranger or more barbaric than Rome!

There was no arguing with a man’s faith in the legends of his childhood.

I can’t say I had an ideal father, and I’m not a father myself.

Now as I grow older, Meto, I grow less and less able to tolerate the stupidity of the people and the wickedness of their rulers. I have seen too much suffering created by ambitious men who care only for themselves.

All writing is an act of self-exploration. Even a grocery list says something about you; how much more does a novel say?

Not write what you know, but know what you write. If you write about a world before, after, or other than this one, enter that world completely. Search it to find your deepest longings and most terrible fears. Let imagination carry you as far as it may, as long as you recount the voyage with excitement and wonder. But this is the most important rule: write the book you most long to read.

I can't say I had an ideal father, and I'm not a father myself.

Adrienne Mayor's inquiry into the myth--and surprising reality--of Amazon women begins with the fierce Greek huntress Atalanta, but takes us deep into the past and as far afield as the Great Wall of China. With the restless curiosity and meticulous scholarship that have become her hallmark, the author once again has found a gap in my bookshelf and filled it, admirably.

Im like the painter with his nose to the canvas, fussing over details. Gazing from a distance, the reader sees the big picture.