Kathryn Harrison Quotes

The collapse of Russia was the second great event of 1917.

I reread 'Nicholas and Alexandra' in my early twenties, and I never forgot the story.

Lenin had just reflected that the revolution would never happen in his lifetime when in February 1917, hungry crowds in Petrograd overthrew Nicholas II while the revolutionaries were abroad, exiled, or infiltrated by the secret police.

God has given a great deal to man, but man would like something from man.

When you are happy you can forgive a great deal.

In the account book of the Great War the page recording the Russian losses has been ripped out. The figures are unknown. Five millions, or eight? We ourselves know not.

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.

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

I have a great deal of empathy for anyone who's having a hard time. I believe this ability to see another's viewpoint has served me well as a writer.

I would like to be remembered as somebody who cared a great deal about people.

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

I do think that it's extremely important with this character show her assuming power with a great deal of grace, and find out how to do things she won't like - the things she's called upon to do.

I have a great deal of joy in my life, and I'm very fortunate. That combination makes you aware of just how wonderful life can be on the one hand and how dreadful it can be for people on the other. You can't be happy in isolation.

The memoirs of the Grand Duchess Olga are an entertaining record for anyone interested in the imperial family's home life during the last years of Russian autocracy.

I'm interested in playing Rasputin at some point. I find him such a fascinating character and a fascinating period in Russian history. Either Rasputin or Jesus. I think I have more of a chance to play Rasputin.

Revolutions in Russia are even worse than bad czars.

Clinton was super attuned to other people to the point where he talks about feeling other people's pain. Clinton is probably the most buoyant, resilient person in American political history.

Because I've spent most of my life with such a beautiful, talented, challenging female, I feel I've gained - and am still gaining - a great deal of knowledge about the feminine mystique and about personal relationships - knowledge which is so important to a writer.

We need a president that can heal, that can bring people together, that can get us back. We have so much common pain in this country that can get us back to a sense of common purpose and common cause.

Being a medical practitioner enables me to get in touch with people, understand their problems, feel sympathetic towards them, and the natural thing is to want to help them, and if you become a politician and if you are successful, you can help them even more.

There is a lot of suffering and injustice in the world, and there is also a great deal of hope. When you step forward and start speaking about what you see and what you want to change, you can begin living in that hope instead of despair.

Given the gruesome fate of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, and the fact that five of the previous 12 Romanov rulers were also murdered, it is easy to regard Russia's imperial dynasty as cursed.

My mother knows struggle and has taught me how to lead with compassion, the compassion that should be required for every representative on every level of government.

If leadership is about listening, the great political speeches would have been a little different.