When you grow up in a totally segregated society, where everybody around you believes that segregation is proper, you have a hard time. You can't believe how much it's a part of your thinking.

I've never shown anybody a draft of anything.

A rich man's war and a poor man's fight.

Grant was something rare in that or any war. He could learn from experience.

I've never known, at least a modern historical instance, where the truth wasn't superior to distortion in every way.

Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.

But the same thing was true in the army. You slept in a barracks with all kinds of people of every nationality, every trade, every character and quality you can imagine, and that was a good experience.