You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living.

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.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

The only art form that Americans have created that's recognized around the world is jazz music born in a community that had the peculiar experience of being unfree in a free land.

You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of other approaches.

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

Do something that will last and be beautiful. It doesn't have to be a bridge-or a symphony or book or a business. It could be the look in the eye of a child you raise or a simple garden you tend. Do something that will last and be beautiful.