We all know the old expression, “I’ll work my thoughts out on paper.” There’s something about the pen that focuses the brain in a way that nothing else does. That is why we must have more writing in the schools, more writing in all subjects, not just in English classes.
Every book is a new journey. I never felt I was an expert on a subject as I embarked on a project.
The first of all qualities of a general is courage.
There’s an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.
Unlike the people you see in Mathew Brady’s photographs from the Civil War, the men and women of the Revolution seem more like characters in a costume pageant. And it’s a pageant in which the performers are all handsome as stage actors, with uniforms and dress that are always costume perfect.
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.
It was a day and age that saw no reason why one could not learn whatever was required – learn vitally anything – by the close study of books.
The great thing about the arts is that you can only learn to do it by doing it.
I want people to see that all-important time in a different way-in the way it was. For of a number of reasons, including the absence of photographs, we tend to see the men and women of the Revolution as not quite real. And we have far too little sense of what they suffered.
In fact, it was the largest expeditionary force of the 18th century. The largest, most powerful force ever set forth from Britain or any nation.
Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. It’s accelerative. The more we know, the more we want to know.
Nothing ever invented can you a bigger life than a book.
I’m absolutely positive it’s in our human nature to want to know about the past. The two most popular movies of all time, while not historically accurate, are about core historic events: Gone With the Wind and Titanic.
I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber.
I’m drawn particularly to stories that evolve out of the character of the protagonist.
I often think of that when I hear people say that they haven’t time to read.
One of the things about the arts that is so important is that in the arts you discover the only way to learn how to do it is by doing it. You can’t write by reading a book about it. The only way to learn how to write a book is to sit down and try to write a book.
We are raising a generation of young Americans who are, to a very large degree, historically illiterate. It’s not their faults. There’s no problem about enlisting their interest in history. None. The problem is the teachers so often have no history in their background.
Since September 11, it seems to me that never in our lifetime, except possibly in the early stages of World War II, has it been clearer that we have as a source of strength, a source of direction, a source of inspiration – our story.
Each generation, we peel back biases that have blinded those before us. The more we know about the past enables us to ask richer and more provocative questions about who we are today.