Deborah Harkness quotes
1965 – · Contemporary, born 1965 · Historian and novelist
About Deborah Harkness
Born in 1965 in the United States, Deborah Harkness is both a historian and a fiction writer. Her All Souls trilogy combines scholarly research with supernatural romance; works like The Book of Life reuse cultural sayings and historical motifs as elements of character and scene.
Works: A Discovery of Witches; The Book of Life; All Souls trilogy
Quotes
“Impossible is not French.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears as a traditional French proverb and is used in Deborah Harkness's The Book of Life, spoken by the character Ysabeau.
- What remains uncertain
- The common link to Napoleon is traditional and later; no decisive contemporary source confirms he coined this exact phrasing.
The line captures a defiant habit of mind: treat the word ‘impossible’ as unacceptable. Deborah Harkness uses it in The Book of Life to shape a character’s voice, but the phrase itself is a traditional proverb long linked—without firm proof—to Napoleon.