Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading.
Tags: reading, look, bible, experience

Other Quotes by "Claire Tomalin"

Biographers use historians more than historians use biographers, although there can be two-way traffic - e.g., the ever-growing production of biographies of women is helping to change the general picture of the past presented by historians.
Tags: picture, past, change, women
The young Dickens was so alive, so self-confident, so funny.
Tags: dickens, young, alive, funny
I fell in love with Shakespeare when I was 12, and I read the whole works. Yes, I was precocious.
Tags: whole, read, yes, love
Throughout his life, Dickens cared passionately about orphans.
Tags: throughout, his, about, life
When dealing with a subject who is dead, you have this feeling of being God. You know who they're going to marry, when they're going to die. It's strange to feel so omniscient.
Tags: die, feeling, you, god
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