Peter Ackroyd quotes

I believe that the gods themselves are frightened of the world which they have fashioned. (Peter Ackroyd)
The smell of the library was always the same – the musty odour of old clothes mixed with the keener scent of unwashed bodies, creating what the chief librarian had once described as "the steam of the social soup." View quote
Peter Ackroyd
London goes beyond any boundary or convention. It contains every wish or word ever spoken, every action or gesture ever made, every harsh or noble statement ever expressed. It is illimitable. It is Infinite London. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
No poet is ever completely lost. He has the secret of his childhood safe with him, like some secret cave in which he can kneel. And, when we read his poetry, we can join him there. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
Only those with great ambitions know what great fears drive them forward. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
What captivity has been to the Jews, exile has been to the Irish. For us, the romance of our native land begins only after we have left home; it is really only with other people that we become Irishmen. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
The English can laugh and at the same time strike you down, without the least compunction. It is the secret of their success as a nation. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
One can forgive Shakespeare anything, except one's own bad lines. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
And when I was young, did I ever tell you, I always wanted to get inside a book and never come out again? I loved reading so much I wanted to be a part of it, and there were some books I could have stayed in for ever. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge, I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my Cockney accent. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
It may seem unfashionable to say so, but historians should seize the imagination as well as the intellect. History is, in a sense, a story, a narrative of adventure and of vision, of character and of incident. It is also a portrait of the great general drama of the human spirit. (Peter Ackroyd)
I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in my life have become the most important. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
The world is a sea in which we all must surely drown. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
He had the satisfied countenance of a man who has never succeeded in boring himself. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
It sometimes seems to me that the whole course of English history was one of accident, confusion, chance and unintended consequences - there's no real pattern. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
I don't know if I have a voice of my own. I don't see me being an important person with something to say. I haven't. I've got nothing to say. My opinion is of no consequence or value. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
To be a writer was always my greatest aim. I remember writing a play about Guy Fawkes when I was 10. I suppose it's significant, at least to me, that my first work should be about a historical figure. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
When I was a child I wanted to be Pope. My greatest disappointment is missing out on that. I also wanted to be a tap dancer but I never fulfilled that ambition either. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities of kings, queens, generals. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
It's only recently that we've discovered that the artist's inner self is somehow more important than the public world. I'm happier to create exterior pieces for the world rather than to express something I deeply feel or wish to say. (Peter Ackroyd)
None of my books has been ever in my head; after they're finished, they go. It's like being a sort of medium; you just grab it when it's there then just release it when it's time to go. There's a lot of instinct, not planning. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
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. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
London has always provided the landscape for my imagination. It becomes a character - a living being - within each of my books. View quote
Peter Ackroyd
I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical. View quote
Peter Ackroyd