As A Historian, What I Trust Is

I Really Believe That What Happens One Day Affects The Next, And I Think That Came From That Experience Of Learning That If I Told The Score Inning By Inning, Play By Play, It Built Up To Its Natural Climax.

The Value That I Found In Interviewing Was For An Educational Experience, Just To Know That History Itself Is Subjective, That You Can't Say, "it Happened." Do The Best You Can With What You Think Happened, But A Lot Of Other People Are Going To See It Happening Differently.

The White House Is Such An Extraordinary, Simple, Beautiful Place. It's An Extraordinary Piece Of Our History, Because It Is The One Thing That Binds Our Country Together. We Don't Have A King Obviously, But We Have This President, And The Fact That Almost All Of Them Have Lived In The Same Place, And So Much History Took Place In Those Rooms. You Can't Help But Feel Awe-inspired By Being There.

Politicians Generally Form Alliances And Not Friendships. Individuals And Institutions Achieve Their Ends Through Continual Barter. But Deals Are Not Bonds. Indeed, Intense Emotional Involvement With Anything - With Issues, Ideology, A Woman, Even A Family - Can Be A Handicap, Not Only Consuming Valuable Time, But More Importantly, Reducing Flexibility And The Capacity For Detached Calculation Needed To Take Maximum Advantage Of Continually Changing Circumstances.

I Think The Most Important Thing I Wanted To Say At Various Times To Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt Was That It Seemed So Sad To Me That - I Really Believe They Loved Each Other And Had A Great Deal Of Affection - But Because Of That Early Hurt In Their Marriage, There Was A Certain Kind Of Distance From Then On, Until Their Deaths Actually. So At Times, I Just Wanted To Push Them Together And Say, "come On, You Guys! I Know You Love Each Other. This Is Crazy!"