Magic provides a way of still having room for possibilities, an unlimited sense of what the world offers. Magic is always there when science is found wanting. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
I’m a professional non-fiction reader, that’s what I do. But in my 20s we had our own vampire and witch moment, courtesy of Anne Rice, whose books I read and loved. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
My niece was very much caught up in the vampire craze for young adults, and she thought having a vampire boyfriend would be a cool thing. What do you do on a first date? The more I thought about it, the more fun I had imagining what you’d serve a vampire for dinner. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
Films are wonderful but they do fix an identity. I can’t read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ anymore, for instance, without imaging Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
The plain truth is that the period I study is the 16th century, and they were absolutely obsessed with witches and spiritual beings. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
I’m entranced by Amanda Lovelace’s work. She wrote two wonderful books, ‘The Princess Saves Herself in This One’ and ‘The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One.’ You can feel your heart opening because she says things that you thought only you felt. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
I never had a plan to be a fiction writer. It’s something that happened to me. Sometimes I think maybe it was my spectacular mid-life crisis. Some people buy expensive cars, and I wrote a novel. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
The world of scholarship is much more measured in its appreciation and also its criticism than the world of popular literature. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
There were no vampires of note in Western literature until about the 18th century. But they tell us where we park our anxieties, whether its over-powerful women, death or damnation. We make our own monsters. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
People think about history as all grand gestures or significant moments, but the most valuable lesson we can learn is the enduring legacy of the small, meaningful things in life. Deborah Harkness Read Quote
