Nonfiction writers are the packhorses of literature. We’re meant to carry the story. If we can make it up and down the mountain by a reliable if not scenic route, we have delivered. Technique is optional. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
I don’t think there is ever objective biography. Our vision of our subject is always shaped by who we are. So I do, of course, think the biographer’s view is always something to keep in mind. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
Certainly, I am writing as a 21st-century woman, so I am much more inclined to view her as a three-dimensional woman. I think we keep coming up with this stubborn problem of a woman being judged by her appearance rather than her accomplishments. We are much more inclined to ask: was Cleopatra beautiful? Stacy Schiff Read Quote
In ‘Plutarch,’ her voice begins to come out; there are actual 2,000-year-old quotes from Cleopatra, and they are sly and saucy. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
The interesting thing about Cleopatra is that she is such a shape-shifter. I mean through history we’ve all molded her to our times and our places. So there’s room for a movie for her, but I don’t think it will hew to the book. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be vast and perfectly clear. Yet the bane of the biographical existence is paper; if you’re ‘an artist under oath’ you’re writing from a mountain of documentation. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
Recently a study proved that working from a larger, less cluttered computer screen increases concentration. I could have told them that. And yes, I write first drafts with a mechanical pencil and a yellow legal pad. There’s good reason for this primitive behavior: I am a crackerjack typist. My hand moves far more quickly than my brain. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
Cleopatra had one great advantage. She lived at a time when female sovereigns were not anomalies. And when women enjoyed rights they would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years. You could call them early feminists, if I may use a dirty word. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For scientists, or Supreme Court justices, or chief executives, or the woman who wants to learn to fly F-l8s off an aircraft carrier, it works differently. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
The biographer has two lives: The one she leads, and the one she ultimately understands. Stacy Schiff Read Quote
