I read my first book on Woodrow Wilson at age 15, and I was hooked.

There is always a certain leap of faith that editors have made with their nonfiction writers. If the trust is broken, things can get very embarrassing for the writers and the publisher.

I read my first book on Woodrow Wilson at age 15, and I was hooked.

I said, ‘There’s one idea I’ve been carrying in my hip pocket for 35 years. It’s Woodrow Wilson.’

The successful editor is one who is constantly finding newwriters, nurturing their talents, and publishing them with critical and financial success.

I like my subjects to be American, and not too dead, so I can interview people who knew them.

I developed a mania for Fitzgerald - by the time I'd graduated from high school I'd read everything he'd written. I started with 'The Great Gatsby' and moved on to 'Tender Is the Night,' which just swept me away. Then I read 'This Side of Paradise,' his novel about Princeton - I literally slept with that book under my pillow for two years.