I suspect many (most?) conversations in biographies and non-fiction books are not necessarily quoted verbatim. In most cases, the author may at best have had ac

I suspect many (most?) conversations in biographies and non-fiction books are not necessarily quoted verbatim. In most cases, the author may at best have had access to diaries or other notes from the time that recorded a summary of what was said, or they may have interviewed people who, years later, summarised what they recall -- more or less accurately -- being discussed. The author may then present this in the form of quoted speech in order to make it more vivid and compelling for today's reader, but it rarely corresponds to a precise transcript of the original conversation.