...Had proven himself a leader of remarkable ability, a man not only of enterprising ideas, but with the staying power to carry them out.

Washington was a man of exceptional, almost excessive self-command, rarely permitting himself any show of discouragement or despair.

There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.

On Christmas morning when I was a child, my mother would leave a book wrapped at the foot of the bed, which was a hint that Santa had come. It was also her way of keeping us in bed a little longer before we went downstairs. So I've always associated books with happiness and gifts. And they are. I can't get enough of them.

I think it's important to remember that these men are not perfect. If they were marble gods, what they did wouldn't be so admirable. The more we see the founders as humans the more we can understand them.

If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.

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.