David Starkey Quotes

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David Starkey

Profession : Historian

Birth : January 3, 1945

High malice is almost inherent in the profession of historian.

David Starkey

To footnote properly takes time.

David Starkey

Writing is a real activity conducted in real time.

David Starkey

I tend to be a bit of a proselytiser for the importance of royal courts, but all politics - in fact every form of human organisation, and this is something that's so dreadful for all those brought up in the 60s - naturally reverts to monarchy. Newspapers have editors, companies have chief executives.

David Starkey

It's one of the great mysteries to me how anybody who has ever believed in socialism can conceivably vote for Blair or New Labour, which is further to the right of any Tory government apart from that of John Major, and is taking privatisation into realms unheard-of.

David Starkey

It's very easy to front 'The Weakest Link;' it takes 10 minutes to prepare. But it takes three months to prepare an hour-long history programme.

David Starkey

If you look at comparative figures, the last two episodes of 'Six Wives of Henry VIII' were watched by 4m. Graham Norton, who is very funny, gets 3m. Johnny Vaughan's comedy, which I have never seen but people say isn't very good, got less than half the viewers of 'Six Wives.'

David Starkey

I always bought pictures, I only started to buy oil paintings when I started to make serious amounts of money because they cost a serious amount of money.

David Starkey

I spent a lot of my infancy in hospital and actually started school in a wheelchair with this enormous plaster, and then into a surgical boot and callipers, none of which helps assimilation with other children.

David Starkey

Above all, it was the style of Quakerism I was brought up with - an aggressive contempt for popular opinion. The assumption is that most people think something that is wrong, which is great.

David Starkey

I've always been very good at obliterating the undesirable.

David Starkey

Since I was a child, I've gone to bed when things get too much. As a result, I have more trouble winding up than winding down in the morning. I need a second cup of coffee and then I potter around in a disgusting white towelling dressing gown for as long as possible.

David Starkey

Walking is central to my relaxation because when I'm writing I'm stationary for seven hours at a time.

David Starkey

Delving into history is not an escape for me. I'm like a detective, sniffing for clues with a terrier-like excitement.

David Starkey

If I'm relaxing, I'll make a proper cooked breakfast and very slowly drift into the day.

David Starkey

In the same way that I've no desire to live in earlier historical periods, I never touch historical recipes. Most historical cooking is detestable.

David Starkey

The food of my childhood was revolting because I was a child of rationing. However, I still managed to be a very plump child and, indeed, as a teenager, positively fat. In my early twenties I lost three stone in one summer using the only diet that works: the pure protein diet. I kept to it until I was about 50.

David Starkey

I enjoy cooking, but stick to modern dishes.

David Starkey

I never snack apart from fruit such as Cox's apples.

David Starkey

I'm not a completely envy-free zone - I envy 25-year-old men with magnificent bodies - but when I look at my colleagues on the whole, I don't think I have much to envy!

David Starkey