When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute.

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

Often, what you see in the media is driven by economic forces.

If the conditions were right there could be great acceptance. Often it is only when they pose an economic or political threat that it turns really ugly.

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.

Whatever is not commonly seen is condemned as alien.

It's much more difficult to work on a broad subject than on a specific one, because even if it's hard to find the information, if you look hard enough for something specific you will find it, and you will discover things that you wouldn't have thought of before.