I first read War And Peace about 100 years after Tolstoy wrote it. Simon Schama More Quotes by Simon Schama More Quotes From Simon Schama Charles was constitutionally incapable of being a constitutional monarch. Simon Schama incapable british-history history From the days of the Founding Fathers, right to this (2008) election, how and where America fights to defend its freedom, has been the ultimate question in its politics. The one that triggers rage and sorrow; the one that asks is the price of blood too dear? Or, if it is to stay true to its convictions, does America have no coice but to put its lives on the line? Simon Schama fighting war father DIY, cricket, automobile repair. I could study it for a lifetime and not produce a word on the carburettor. Simon Schama diy study lifetime The next worse thing to a battle lost is a battle won. Simon Schama next battle lost I actually think that history has fed off the restlessness of cyber space, of kind of the frantic, segmented nature of the way we lead our lives. People want to be connected. Simon Schama space people thinking We seem wired to grieve with greenery. Allowing the dead to dissolve into the earth, to become part of the cycle of the seasons, has, for millennia, held the promise of cheating mortality. Simon Schama grieving cheating promise Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between. Simon Schama majority stories adventure At 11, 12 I thought I was clumsy, ugly, a mess, an unappealing person, but I did have the gift of the gab. I had the school record at Haberdashers for consecutive detentions for simply speaking out of turn. Simon Schama ugly records school I felt New York was a big, more stylish, more metropolitan Golders Green. I was thrilled. Simon Schama green bigs new-york Walking on camera is damn hard. It's a Jewish problem. The rangy stride across the blasted moor is not really a Jewish thing. Simon Schama moors cameras problem I don't really like the autumn. For me it is the beginning of winter and I hate the winter. White, the colour of death. Simon Schama autumn hate winter In its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present. Simon Schama greek history past To collude in the minimisation of British history on the grounds of its imagined irrelevance to our rebranded national future, or from a suspicion that it does no more than recycle patriotic pieties unsuited to a global marketplace, would be an act of appallingly self-inflicted collective memory loss. Simon Schama patriotic loss memories Irreverence is the lifeblood of freedom. Simon Schama irreverence I'm helplessly and permanently a Red Sox fan. It was like first love...You never forget. It's special. It's the first time I saw a ballpark. I'd thought nothing would ever replace cricket. Wow! Fenway Park at 7 o'clock in the evening. Oh, just, magic beyond magic: never got over that Simon Schama magic first-love love-you You are not thinking hard enough if you are sleeping well. And you would have to be unhinged to take on a subject like the French Revolution, or Rembrandt, and not feel some trepidation. There is always the possibility that you will crash and burn, and the whole thing will be a horrible, vulgar, self-indulgent mess. Simon Schama feel you revolution thinking The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence. Simon Schama challenge truth life people It takes a perverse determination to drain that instinctive curiosity away and make history seem just remote, dead and disconnected from our contemporary reality. Conversely, it just takes skilful storytelling to recharge that connection to make the past come alive in our present. Simon Schama curiosity determination history past The Jewish story is the story of wandering. It is the story of extraordinary heterogeneous complication. Simon Schama wandering jewish story extraordinary Never crowd a pan with too many mushrooms. They give off an enormous amount of moisture. And there's nothing worse than a braised mushroom, other than a lot of braised mushrooms. Simon Schama crowd worse nothing never
