I discovered that Robert Todd Lincoln was there for each of the first three assassinations. I wanted to write about the Lincoln Memorial, so when I found out he had attended its dedication, that helped focus it further.

What are you hiding? No one ever asks that.

Behind every bad law, a deep fear.

Along with voting, jury duty, and paying taxes, goofing off is one of the central obligations of American citizenship.

Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know.

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

Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friend has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm . . . At fifteen, I couldn't say two words about the weather or how I was doing, but I could come up with a paragraph or two about the album Charlie Parker with Strings. In high school, I made the first real friends I ever had because one of them came up to me at lunch and started talking about the Cure.