David McCullough

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is. ”

With the Truman book, I wrote the entire account of his experiences in World War I before going over to Europe to follow his tracks in the war. When I got there, there was a certain satisfaction in finding I had it right - it does look like that. ”

The pull, the attraction of history, is in our human nature. What makes us tick? Why do we do what we do? How much is luck the deciding factor? ”

I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities. ”

In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and need to know. ”

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are. ”

Real success is finding you lifework in the work that you love. ”

I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber. ”

People are so helpful. People will stop what they're doing to show you something, to walk with you through a section of the town, or explain how a suspension bridge really works. ”

The title always comes last. What I really work hard on is the beginning. Where do you begin? In what tone do you begin? I almost have to have a scene in my mind. ”