My books are written with a strong chronological spine.

Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.

The past is not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image.

That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment.

Once a president gets to the White House, the only audience that is left that really matters is history.

As a historian, what I trust is my ability to take a mass of information and tell a story shaped around it.

Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.

Better to have your enemies inside your tent pissing out, then to have them outside your tent pissing in.

I still think about that one Jamiroquai video a lot.

Excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment itself.

Whatever it is that you do, if you have that passion and desire for it, that's the most important thing.

The human digestive tract is like the Amtrak line from Seattle to Los Angeles: transit time is about thirty hours, and the scenery on the last leg is pretty monotonous.

The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy.

Its hard for me to listen to any actors whine or moan about anything acting-related because look at the world. We really have nothing to complain about. Just to be working is a blessing.

Conservatives aren't anti-immigrant - conservatives are pro-legal immigration.

it was a sly trick of God's to give a man work to do - it kept him from asking questions that God couldn't answer.

I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick.

Polishing: a useful lesson for the hopeful writer. You say your tormented prose doesn't read as well as mine? Neither does mine, at first!

I think there is an obligation on the part of all of us to stay informed and aware.

When I was eight years old to be a spaceman was the most exciting thing I could imagine.

For the progress of humanity, work alone is not adequate, but the work should be associated with love, compassion, right conduct, truthfulness and sympathy.