Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. - John Adams

Find something to do that you love because then the work itself is always the reward not the recompense. And if you love what you're doing you probably do better at it than doing something you don't love and therefore you'll be compensated appropriately.

There are people who are trying to write history for the general reader who can be quite tedious. That said, I do feel in my heart of hearts that if history isn't well written, it isn't going to be read, and if it isn't read it's going to die.

Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.

When you start to write, things begin to come into focus in a way they don't when you're not writing. It's a very good way to find out how much you don't know because you learn specifically what you need to know that you don't know at the moment by writing.

If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.

I love all sides of the work but that doesn't mean it isn't hard.