The past is not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image.

The only protection as a historian is to institute a process of research and writing that minimizes the possibility of error. And that I have tried to do, aided by modern technology, which enables me, having long since moved beyond longhand, to use a computer for both organizing and taking notes.

she said. ''I don't want to sound embarrassing, but he looks sensual.

'The bully pulpit' is somewhat diminished in our age of fragmented attention and fragmented media.

My recurring nightmare is that someday I will be faced with a panel: Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all of whom will be telling me everything I got wrong about them. I know that Johnson's out there saying, 'Why is it that what you wrote about the Kennedys is twice as long as the book you wrote about me?'

I wish we could go back to the time when the private lives of our public figures were relevant only if they directly affected their public responsibilities.