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.
My strong feeling is that we must learn more about how we learn. I’m convinced that we learn by struggling to find the solution to a problem on our own with some guidance, but getting in and getting our hands dirty and working it.
I would pay to do what I do if I had to.
I love Dickens. I love the way he sets a scene.
I love all sides of the work but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard.
There is a human longing to go back to other times. We all know how when we were children we asked our parents, “What was it like when you were a kid?” I think it probably has something to do with our survival as a species.
I think that we need history as much as we need bread or water or love.
Nobody ever lived in the past.
Washington had performed his role to perfection. It was no enough that a leader look the part; by Washington’s rules, he must know how to act it with self-command and precision.
Little children can learn anything, just as they can learn a foreign language. The mind is so absorbent then. There ought to be a real program to educate teachers who want to teach grade school children about history.
There is only one person who can measure your success. That person is you.
He had kept his head, kept his health and his strength, bearing up under a weight of work and worry that only a few could have carried.
Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. – John Adams.