Historical Fiction Quotes

The schoolroom . . . Olivia had always adored its confines and endless horizons. The melodious purr of the teacher's voice rising up and down her lessons like a musical score. And the sight of book spines--black, blue, green--lined up side by side like London townhouses. Each leather rectangle a gift waiting to be opened and explored and savored.

~ Julie Klassen

In my long career in this historical fiction business, though, I've found that the most effective storytelling concept is this: Once upon a time it was now.That has become my credo and my method as a longtime historical novelist.It's quite simple, if you see as Janus sees:Today is now.Yesterday was now.Tomorrow will be now.Three hundred years ago, the eighteenth century was now.You, as a historical novelist, can make any time now by taking your reader into that time. Once you grasp that, the rest is just hard work.Stay with me, and you'll see how such work is done.

~ James Alexander Thom

Quincy and Fisher walked through all this in silence. Silence was the most common stock-in-trade between them, and the portfolio of their friendship was thick with it. So, without words, they stepped across the streets, their feet pressing the pavement with the same sounds, their toes turned just so; they knew what life was like at each other's side. Sometimes he would speak, or she would, small offerings on the altar of their joint survival.

~ Beth Brower

I turn away from the smell of death, pressing my lavender scented handkerchief as tight as I can against my nose.

~ Meghan Masterson

If she could walk away, she would; her pride demanded at least that much from her. But Quincy knew that her heart beat with the rhythm of the presses in the back room, that her blood ran black with ink, and that her mind filled with reams of numbers and projections and plans. The Q was Quincy's only vital organ, so she would play the game.

~ Beth Brower

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become. -Steve Jobs

~ Shirley A. Aaron

For the first time in years, I have vivid dreams, vivid enough to count the stars and the number of ripples in the sea.

~ Brittany Weekley/Monroe Starr

I want to be a good man, a good writer.Be one or the other, Ernest, not both.

~ Naomi Wood

Plastic flowers last for hours

~ Bill Fairclough

No man should be asked to live with so much sadness, and with so little promise of relief.

~ Naomi Wood

Ernest chose to go, she finally thinks, watching the fire turn the papers black. He loved her but he could not live anymore.

~ Naomi Wood

Martha thanks Sylvia, gesturing with the book. Just remember not to try to hard with understanding it, Sylvia says. Like people, they're best not to be too thoroughly understood.

~ Naomi Wood

Birkenau simmered in the July sun like some hideous brew, a witch's potion of blood, sweat, smoke, and excrement worthy of something the weird sisters might have cooked up in Macbeth.

~ J. Michael Dolan

Now the city is at its loveliest. The crowds of summer and autumn have gone, the air has a new freshness, the light has that pale-gold quality unique to this time of year. There have been several weeks of this weather now, without a drop of rain.

~ Lucy Foley

That spring was the start of everything, for me. Before then, I might have been half-asleep, drifting through life.

~ Lucy Foley

What determines how we remember history and which elements are preserved and penetrate the collective consciousness? If historical novels stir your interest, pursue the facts, history, memories, and personal testimonies available. These are the shoulders that historical fiction sits upon. When the survivors are gone we must not let the truth disappear with them. Please, give them a voice.

~ Ruta Sepetys

Matthew shook his head. “Whoever said anything of women in the Victorian era being prim and proper apparently hadn’t met Maxine Fleming.”Tahatan chuckled. “I’m sure a publisher somewhere would make a nice fortune with putting this into print. The fact is, people tend to look back on bygone times through rose-colored glasses. All eras have encouraged values that are pushed on the surface, but in the end, people are still people.

~ Tiffany Apan

William made an ejaculation in his own language that I didn't understand, nor did the abbot understand it, and perhaps it was best for us both, because the word William uttered had an obscene hissing sound.

~ Umberto Eco

There is not a lost piece of yourself that can't be found in a good novel.

~ Kimberly Jo Smith

I once heard an elder say that the dead who have no use for their words leave them as part of their children's inheritance. Proverbs, teeth suckings, obscenities, even grunts and moans once inserted in special places during conversations, all are passed along to the next heir.

~ Edwidge Danticat

I enjoy writing historical fiction because it allows me to live more lives than just this one.

~ Karen A. Chase

As I grow ever closer to the end of my time, I look back at this life and tell you that the only thing I would wish to give up is the regret I've carried in my heart for all these years. At long last I have come to realize the things I once counted as regrets were indeed blessings that I was too blind to see.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

It's no such thing! she said. It's friendship! And if you're a man who can't tell friendship from charity, then you're to be pitied!

~ Bette Lee Crosby

Church words are easy to say, but they're not so easy to live by.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

As sorry as I feel for myself, I feel even sorrier for her. I know she's afraid of staying and equally as frightened of going. Just as this land is a part of me, this house is a part of her. Selling off these things piece by piece is like cutting away chunks of her heart. I promised to make it better, but only God knows whether or not that's a promise I'll be able to keep.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

Cyrus is the meat and potatoes of my life, but Prudence was a cupcake I could enjoy just for the sheer sweetness of being with her.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

He searched his mind for something more to say, something to take away her pain, but he could find nothing. There were no words to ease such a pain. He knew because the ache in his heart was as great as hers.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

Here's to the future, he said and lifted the glass to his mouth. There was a lump of regret stuck in his throat as he spoke the words, but he washed it down with the whiskey.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

Madame, I believe the greatest sin against God is to be false. If one is not true to one's self, then it is impossible to be true to God. I bear you no ill will for following your heart.

~ Diane Haeger

A man's pride will cause him to do things you never dreamed possible. He got fired up about being right and blocked out everything else.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

A man cannot change who he is. He can only hope that with age comes the wisdom to see his folly. I would like to believe I have achieved that.

~ Bette Lee Crosby

It's said truth is stranger than fiction, but fiction makes truth a friend, not a stranger.

~ Avi

How age enamels us, she would say. It builds up in layers and locks us inside our own skin, stopping us from breaking out, preventing the outside from burrowing in.

~ Rosie Thomas

The tall, thin serious man strode in, his dark cloak billowing so dramatically it threatened to extinguish the lamp flame with its draught. He advanced like a malevolent shadow consuming the dim orange light, filling the room with a presence almost more than human.

~ Gregory Figg

I’m not only my father’s daughter, but also a daughter of the nation he founded. And protecting both is what I’ve always done.

~ Laura Kamoie

Sons of a revolution fight for liberty. They give blood, flesh, limbs, their very lives. But daughters . . . we sacrifice our eternal souls.

~ Laura Kamoie

Perhaps Zeus was king, but I was Spartan, a princess twice over, and queen of Athens besides. I knew my duty. And I would rule my own fate.

~ Amalia Carosella

Tolerance over time breeds resentment. Only through understanding, that comes from the acceptance of one another's differences, shall we find true peace.

~ Erndell Scott

He watched the young actress playing the central part of a wife who mistakenly believes her husband has wronged her. She was overly trained in the teapot school of acting, striking expressive poses and attitudes as the mood of the story demanded.

~ Stephen Harrigan

Stay with me?” His fingers wound into my hair, and his arm tightened around me. “Always.

~ Amalia Carosella