Joanne Harris Quotes

Winners write the history.

History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?

It is the winners who write history - their way.

There is no such thing as a final draft of history.

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

People are very resentful of elements in the history text books that are different from the history textbooks that they studied…. New knowledge has to be incorporated.

The lessons of history are taught by the victors.

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product.

One duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.

We often do not get the first draft of history right.

History is not just written by the winners; it's written about them.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

Writing of history is our only heuristic principle. The Germans have a word for it, einfühlen. It is the ability to experience the past in the present and to recreate it. In my books, I have tried to recreate it in the most natural way possible: History must be integrated into the story without the weight of premonition.

People say history was written by the winners. No, it wasn't. It was written by the bullies.

Every generation tailors history to its taste.

The contemporary historian never writes such a true history as the historian of a later generation.

History is written by the winners. The books say the Indians were bad guys and the whites just needed a little land. It's like, Excuse me, let me take your car. I'm discovering it. I'm putting my flag on your windshield.

Historians are dangerous people. They are capable of upsetting everything.

There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

Writing history is a method of getting rid of the past.

History is written by those who win and those who dominate.

Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.

To write history is as important as to make history. It is an unchanging truth that if the writer does not remain true to the maker, then it takes on a quality that will confuse humanity.

In the course of writing one historical book or another, it has happened that I could hardly restrain myself from simply copying entire documents. Indeed, I sometimes sank down among the documents and said to myself, I can't improve on these.