In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and need to know.

There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.

I had been writing for about twelve years. I knew pretty well how you could find things out, but I had never been trained in an academic way how to go about the research.

I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber.

You can't be a full participant in our democracy if you don't know our history.

People ask me when I start one of these projects, what is your theme? I haven’t the faintest idea. That’s why you’re writing the book, it seems to me, to find out. To me, it’s a journey. It’s an adventure. It’s traveling in a country you’ve never been in and everything is going to be new, and because of that, vivid. And don’t make up your mind too soon. Let it be an experience.