As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.

Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

After working as a journalist I went to a writing program at Johns Hopkins. It was interesting because it was neither journalistic nor historical, but it emphasized writing style, and afterwards I was asked to write my first book.

I may attempt a novel. I think that no matter what you write, it requires being honest with oneself, and you have to pull yourself out of the whirlwind of daily life.

The spoken word vanished with the wind. Likewise, the unrecorded life disappears as if it never existed.

When the Chinese first came to San Francisco, they were actually welcomed by the mayor and they had special ceremonies for them-again this is when their colony was very small, only a few Chinese.