Peter Ackroyd Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Oh, I just tend to believe in things when I'm writing them. For instance, when I was writing 'Doctor Dee,' I believed in magic. And when I wrote 'Hawksmoor' I believed in psychic geography. But as soon as I type the last full stop, I'm back to being a complete blank again.”

“The English have always been greedy for news of times past, with that mixture of fatalism and melancholy which is part of the national character.”

“The 16th-century theatre witnessed the particularly English manifestation of 'the history play.' There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's presentations of 'Henry V' and 'Richard III' have been incalculably more influential than any more sober historical study.”

“Every book for me is a chapter in the long book which will finally be closed on the day of my death.”

“Freud was just a novelist.”

“In 'The Plato Papers' I wanted to get another perspective on the present moment by extrapolating into the distant future. So in that sense, there's a definite similarity of purpose between a book set in the future and a book set in the past.”

“I saw a ghost once, about 20 years ago. It took the form of someone coming out of a sleeping body and sitting at the foot of the bed.”

“I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive.”

“London has always provided the landscape for my imagination. It becomes a character - a living being - within each of my books.”

“I love soap operas - the stories, the plots! And I love the game shows and the courtroom dramas and the detectives - Jessica Fletcher, 'Columbo,' 'Perry Mason,' 'L.A. Law.' Any sense of guilt appeals to me in a television program - a sense of guilt, or a sense of making a lot of money.”