My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

Home is really where education does begin.

Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance, such infinite reward for time spent, as a good book.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

Every book is a new journey. I never felt I was an expert on a subject as I embarked on a project.

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.

I think the public library system is one of the most amazing American institutions. Free for everybody. If you ever get the blues about the status of American culture there are still more public libraries than there are McDonald's. During the worst of the Depression not one public library closed their doors.