I've always been interested in foreign relations. It's my belief that study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present rather than an escape from it.

As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claws.

It touched me to be trusted with something terrible.

The heart does not go backward. Only the mind.

If there is any good in life, in history, in my own past, I invoke it now. I invoke it with all the passion with which I have lived.

Festina Lente (Hurry in slowly)

Bulgarians eat tarator every single day in summer. They think of it as salad although we'd call it a soup. You can make it as thick or thin as you like depending on how much water you add. It's very practical in summer because yogurt cools the body faster than water, but the water hydrates you.