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.

The young Dickens was so alive, so self-confident, so funny.

I fell in love with Shakespeare when I was 12, and I read the whole works. Yes, I was precocious.

Throughout his life, Dickens cared passionately about orphans.

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.