And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.

I often think of that when I hear people say that they haven't time to read.

When I'm reading for my own pleasure, I read things other than history or archival material. I read a lot of fiction. I'm very fond of mysteries.

Books can change your life. Some of the most influential people in our lives are characters we meet in books.

Why limit yourself to the experience of your own relatively brief time on earth, according to your biological clock, when the whole realm of the human experience reaching back infinitely far is available to you?

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

You can't love what you don't know much about. You can't convince, stimulate, hold the attention, teach, if you don't know what you're talking about.