Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.

If you want to study writing, read Dickens

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.

I never cared what kind of grade I got.

Before the war it was always the United States *are*, after the war it was the United States is... it made us an is.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.

Most of my inspiration, if that's the word, came from books themselves.