Biography is the best form of history.

Biography is the only true history.

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eaten and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.

To the biographer, all lives bar one are dramatic constructions.

Where I was born, and where and how I lived is unimportant. It is what I have done and where I have been that should be of interest.

Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.