BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

I am a huge admirer of Elizabeth I, and this intriguing biography gives a wonderful picture of the era.

I work eight hours a day, but I'm not writing all that time. I'm thinking, editing, looking something up. Thinking is what I do a lot of.

When you are a strong woman, you will attract trouble. When a man feels threatened, there is always trouble.

He who ascends to mountaintops, shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind Must look down on the hate of those below

In my opinion, moderation is a vastly overrated virtue, particularly when applied to work

Life always gets harder towards the summit - the cold increases, responsibility increases

A person with taste is merely one who can recognize the greatest beauty in the simplest things.

Love is a handful of seeds, marriage the garden, and like your gardens, Paula, marriage requires total commitment, hard work, and a great deal of love and care. Be ruthless with the weeds. Pull them out before they take hold. Bring the same dedication to your marriage that you do to your gardens and everything will be all right. Remember that a marriage has to be constantly replenished too, if you want it to flourish.

We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.

She put her hand in his, and he clasped it firmly, knowing he had been waiting for her all his life.

The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.

It's different when the person you love dies. There's an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there's the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there's no way to deal with the grief and pain.