People are so helpful. People will stop what they're doing to show you something, to walk with you through a section of the town, or explain how a suspension bridge really works.

I'm very aware how many distractions the reader has in life today, how many good reasons there are to put the book down.

How can we know who we are and where we are going if we don't know anything about where we have come from and what we have been through, the courage shown, the costs paid, to be where we are?

Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, 'Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually.

Read somewhat in the English poets every day. You will find them elegant, entertaining and constructive companions through your whole life.

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

I think it's best to pick a biographical subject who lives to a ripe old age. Older people tend to relax and speak their minds. They're dropping some of the masks that they've been wearing. There's a candor.