“ The bell of Limehouse Church rang as each of them, in this house, drifted into sleep - suddenly once more like children who, exhausted by the day's adventures, fall asleep quickly and carelessly. A so… Peter Ackroyd
“ On his thirteenth birthday he had seen a film in which the central character was a painter who, unable to sell his work, grew cold and hungry as he went from one unsuccessful interview to the next; ev… Peter Ackroyd
“ I need to know when,' he said, 'In this case when is more important than how. Do you have a time-table?' For although images of this murder now surrounded him, and the parts of the body had become emb… Peter Ackroyd
“ A woman is a deep Ditch, said he, her House inclines to Death and her Paths unto the Devil Peter Ackroyd
“ His terror became his companion. When it seemed to diminish, or grow easier to bear, he forced himself to remember the details of what he had said and done so that his fears returned, redoubled. His p… Peter Ackroyd
“ Women, of their nature, crave for liberty; they will not be ordered around like servants. Peter Ackroyd
“ Generally he knew by instinct the likely length of an investigation, but on this occasion he did not: as he fought to get his breath he suddenly saw himself as others must see him, and he was struck b… Peter Ackroyd
“ But just as my philosophy had ceased to interest me as soon as it was formulated into a set of principles so, when I saw myself being imitated, I realised at once what an incubus my aesthetic personal… Peter Ackroyd
“ There is no real origin for anything. Everything just exists. Everything just exists in order to exist. Peter Ackroyd
“ The people had once created the city. The city now created the people, or, more exactly, the people of Venice now identified themselves more in terms of the city. The private had become public. Peter Ackroyd
“ It is the nature of humankind to idealize, to indulge in excessive praise as well as unjust condemnation. Peter Ackroyd
“ History is about longing and belonging. It is about the need for permanence and the perception of continuity. It concerns the atavistic desire to find deep sources of identity. We live again in the tw… Peter Ackroyd
“ For when I trace back the years I have liv'd, gathering them up in my Memory, I see what a chequer'd Work Of Nature my life has been. If I were now to inscribe my own History with its unparalleled Suf… Peter Ackroyd
“ It sometimes seems to me that the whole course of English history was one of accident, confusion, chance and unintended consequences - there's no real pattern. Peter Ackroyd
“ Absinthe removes the bitter taste of failure and grants me strange visions which are charming principally because they cannot be written down. Only in absinthe do I become entirely free and, when I dr… Peter Ackroyd
