I think that England made a very big, historical mistake to allow itself to become the kind of terrorist capital of the world.
Writing is writing to me. I’m incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I’ve done everything – historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I’ll write. It’s the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.
There are a lot of parallels between the historical Henry VIII and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. There’s an oscillation and extremity of emotion throughout his repertoire that lends itself beautifully to the nature of Henry VIII, definitely. He will push things to the limit, and yet remain in emotional control.
Back in 2006-07 when we completed the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years, the historical significance didn’t really filter in to our thinking. We didn’t realise it at the time – we were just making amends for 2005.
Whatever an artist’s personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.
If we look too closely at many historical figures, we won’t like what we see.
‘Outlander’ is based on a group of books; there’s a slight fantasy element to it, but ours is authentic – we try to stick to historical accuracy as possible. Ours is about a small group of people and a core relationship rather than big armies.
There is a reason to have an agency called the EPA, and it has served an historical purpose I believe is vital to this country.
The historical orthodox Christian faith is extremely wide and diverse.
I love being in the archives, traveling, sitting in dusty places and looking at books with brittle pages. I love reading biographies and researching, to make myself informed about whatever political or historical time I’m writing about. From there, a lot of the emotional truths about my characters emerge.
Italy advocates the adoption of a legal instrument on cultural diversity, guaranteeing every country the protection of its own historical identity and the uniqueness of its physical and intangible cultural heritage.
Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place in museums; others, we take for walks.
We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces; nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.
There I was limited to what happened the same way I am with Riel. It doesn’t feel like a great burden to have your story, to some degree, set. I am enjoying figuring out what I think is the most dramatic way of telling this set of historical facts.
All societies are historical.
Shakespeare is in many ways an African writer and ‘Hamlet’ would be seen as a very accurate historical saga about an African kingdom.
The southern colonists were not preoccupied with their own historical significance and mostly did not bother even to make the records of births, marriages, and deaths that they required of themselves by law. Nor did they write accounts of what they were up to for the benefit of posterity.
Success in the art world means getting invitations to exhibit in some great places. I had shown in contemporary art museums in Europe, America, New Zealand and Japan. I’d also been asked to curate shows, and had made work to go with my selections from historical collections.
Respect can be as elusive as the unicorn. I know something of this because I write books that are set in the Middle Ages, and the historical novel is often seen as the unwanted stepchild in the fictional family. I know even more about respect – or the lack thereof – because I live in New Jersey.
Much of the way we understand the world is through images. That’s what I think good art does – it teaches you how to see the historical moment that you live in.
Most of my career has been spent with the RSC doing Shakespeare, and the thing you learn from Shakespeare is that his historical plays don’t bear anything other than a basic resemblance to history.
So America’s president now says most Jewish American voters are either ignorant or disloyal. It’s such a dreadful thing to say, so heavy with historical hatred and violence, that it’s utterly unsurprising in U.S. President Donald Trump’s mouth. And his supporters nod and say he’s right.
I find that when I come upon something that I think is a historical revelation, I have the sort of adrenaline rush that I imagine a gambler gets in Las Vegas when he hits the jackpot. It’s still tremendously exciting to me, and I think all of my peers in the business feel the same way.
At least since 1947, the historical record seems to support a simple conclusion: If you want the American economy to grow, you ought to put a Democrat in the Oval Office.
Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history.
To me, spending millions of dollars recreating the world’s sadness with actors and props and sets – it seems like a kind of arrogant waste of money… Unless, that is, it’s a film about an historical event.
I think all in all, one thing a lot of plays seem to be saying is that we need to, as black Americans, to make a connection with our past in order to determine the kind of future we’re going to have. In other words, we simply need to know who we are in relation to our historical presence in America.
It is important to learn to understand in a historical text, a text from the past, the living Word of God, that is, to enter into prayer and thus read Sacred Scripture as a conversation with God.
China’s rise is really a kind of a world historical event. This is the largest country in the world. It has caused a wholesale substantial contraction of U.S. manufacturing employment.
Even a lame-duck president can be affected by a clear midterm message if he wants to see his vice president elected and preserve his historical legacy.
The psychoanalytic method is essentially a historical method.
And finally, it was Deuteronomy that brought about the historical result of Josiah’s reformation.
One lesson is that if you want to predict voter turnout, you should ask whether at least one candidate is attracting high levels of enthusiasm – not whether the stakes are high, or even perceived to be high. That fits the historical pattern.
In any film there’s always a historical implication.
A lot of my poems either have historical sequences or other kinds of chronological grids where I’m locating myself in time. I like to feel oriented, and I like to orient the reader at the beginning of a poem.
One of the joys of writing historical fiction is the chance to read as much as you like on a pet subject – so much that you could easily bore your friends senseless on the topic.
My second novel, ‘The Luminaries,’ is set in the New Zealand gold rushes of the 1860s, though it’s not really a historical novel in the conventional sense. So far, I’ve been describing it as ‘an astrological murder mystery.’
I was not aware of how much I loved ‘Canoa’ until I saw it after doing ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ and realized that my voice – over about the story’s historical context – that narrator – came from ‘Canoa’.
I enjoyed studying costume, learning about the corsetry and the historical context of fashion. I never had any real intention of being a costume designer.
If you write nonfiction, a historical account of what really happened, first of all, it’s always white men who do that, and you don’t have the voices that are really interesting to me, of the people who are not sheltered by the big umbrella of the establishment.
And it also became clear that these conditions of inequality and historical injustice have given rise to a feeling of hate in the world – a deeply felt hate that cannot easily be overcome with a few good words.
For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.
We will see about Obama’s legacy. I still think the historical nature of his candidacy will be the biggest part of his legacy.
Research can be a big clunker. It’s difficult to know how you can make the historical light.
I am not very moved by historical apologies.
The addition of romance in my books or mystery to a historical romance is the sauce, not the goose.
My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.
There’s a historical milestone in the fact that our Apollo 11 landing on the moon took place a mere 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
My father loved to take us on historical vacations, and you should have seen the stares we received in East Berlin.
Most architects work in studios largely divorced from academia, as if ideas, criticism and historical research were irrelevant.
The Holocaust is as real a historical event as World War II itself and not to be challenged.
My process for determining which eras I’d write about was to just read history books that gave a really broad overview of Chinese history. And when I came across a historical figure or a historical incident that was especially interesting to me, ideas for characters and stories would surface.
One of the things I like about doing historical films is drawing the line between now and then.
