No one was more important to the game of baseball in the last half of the 20th century than Henry Aaron and no one writes about that supremely talented man, that tumultuous time and this treasure of a game better than Howard Bryant. Together, they are an extraordinary combination, and the book Bryant has written gets to the heart of the complicated and dignified, patient and consistent genuine hero that is Henry Aaron.

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn.

I have come to the realization that history is not a fixed thing, a collection of precise dates, facts and events (even cogent commencement quotes) that add up to a quantifiable, certain, confidently known, truth. It is a mysterious and malleable thing.

One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes.

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

Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.