The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief.

Until that moment, I hadn't realized that I embarked on the project of touring historic sites and monuments having to do with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley right around the time my country iffily went to war, which is to say right around the time my resentment of the current president cranked up into contempt. Not that I want the current president killed. Like that director, I will, for the record (and for the FBI agent assigned to read this and make sure I mean no harm — hello there), clearly state that while I am obsessed with death, I am against it.

Most people don't like to talk about violent historical death.

You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.

In death, you get upgraded into a saint no matter how much people hated you in life.

Robert Todd Lincoln, a.k.a. Jinxy McDeath.

I didn't come from any kind of academic background, but I lived in a college town and I knew people who weren't without pretense. There was this idea in the town that if something was European it would be good.