Kathryn Harrison Quotations

Having grown up so familiar with creating a pleasing facade, I now end up compelled to reveal things inside and say, 'Okay, now you really see me. Do you still love me?' And then it's never enough; it always has to be total self-revelation.

By the time Joan of Arc was 16 and had proclaimed herself the virgin warrior sent by God to deliver France from her enemies, the English, she had been receiving the counsel of angels for three years.

Writing is how I stay sane. It's completely necessary.

When I was eleven, my mother gave me Robert K. Massie's 'Nicholas and Alexandra.' It was the first 'grownup' book I read, and I loved it.

Shorter work - personal essays and book reviews - allow me to take a break from working on a book, which is good for the book and for its author.

Rasputin's daughter understands the revolution. She would have been an outsider, a spectator in the royal family and to the revolution.

Like all holy figures whose earthly existence separates them from the broad mass of humanity, a saint is a story, and Joan of Arc's is like no other.

It is my conviction that secrets are more costly in the long run than honesty.

I've always been interested in the intersection between our rational and our unconscious lives.

I'm not an investigative journalist; I don't track crime or police blotters.