“Political biography is in the doldrums. No one wants to read 800 pages...” — Jane Ridley Quote

“Political biography is in the doldrums. No one wants to read 800 pages or so of cradle-to-grave dead politics, especially if it's familiar stuff and has all been written about before.”

“We live in an age of generational turmoil. Baby-boom parents are accused of clinging on to jobs and houses which they should be freeing up for their children. Twentysomethings who can't afford to leave home and can't get jobs are attacked as aimless and immature.”

“Romantic love came under attack, first from the Freudians and then from the neuroscientists, who said that being in love was a chemical reaction in the brain. Marriage is no longer seen as a lifetime commitment.”

“Obama was the first president whose biography makes sense to me. He can walk into a room anywhere and find common ground with any person.”

“I am trying to make clear through my writing something which I believe: that biography- history in general- can be literature in the deepest and highest sense of that term.”

“I was obsessed with Lil' Bow Wow growing up, and you couldn't see the white of my walls because they were plastered with his photos. This is even more embarrassing: I had a notebook full of facts about Bow Wow and different pictures. I basically made a biography notebook about him and his life when he was, like, 13.”