"Like most little girls, I found the lure of grown-up accessories astonishing - lipstick, perfume, hats and gloves. When I write female characters in my historical novels, getting these details right is vital."

“My grandmother was born in 1900, and she would regale me with tales I call 'Little House on the Prairie' tales, but they were tales of segregated and racist America growing up in Alabama and Mississippi, where she came from.”

Source : "David Alan Grier's 'Sporting Life' On Broadway". "Fresh Air", www.npr.org. May 22, 2012.

“What is this eternity to me without you?What is the infinity of my domains?Empty ringing words,A spacious temple - without a divinity!”

Source : "The Demon". Poem by Mikhail Lermontov, 1830.

“It is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything.”

“The future of Japan's economic growth depends on us having the willpower and the courage to sail without hesitation onto the rough seas of global competition.”

Source : "Japan’s New Leader Takes On Old Order to Jolt Economy" by Martin Fackler, www.nytimes.com. March 6, 2013.

“I always use my husband's cocoa butter stuff. He has amazing skin!”

“Leaders exhibit two essential characteristics, the willingness to confront adversity and a clearly articulated future preference.”

“I'm considering getting married again. I've not lost faith in that institution. I'm older; I'm smarter. I'm no longer searching for something to complete me... and therefore I'm now able to find someone to be a partner with.”

“Reading. Reading was the stable backdrop against which my life was played.”

Source : Lynne Sharon Schwartz (2001). “Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books”, p.12, Beacon Press