World War II is smothered in sentimentality and nostalgia. What's interesting about Vietnam is that sentimentality is just not there, so you're given kind of a clean access to it in one way. It's also a war that represents a failure for the United States. Many people came back feeling like they never wanted to talk about it again. And so we developed a national amnesia.

The flame is not out, but it is flickering.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it, it's entirely my fault.

You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you get that triangulation is through time.