When I'm reading for my own pleasure, I read things other than history or archival material. I read a lot of fiction. I'm very fond of mysteries. — David McCullough Copy Share Image
You have to get inside the people you are writing about. You have to go below the surface. And that's to a very large degree what all writers are doing - they're trying to get below the surface. Whether it's… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
With the Truman book, I wrote the entire account of his experiences in World War I before going over to Europe to follow his… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Steamboats by this time were becoming a familiar presence on the rivers and coastal waters of America, but not until 1838 did steam-powered ships… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I feel that history is in many ways the most important of all subjects because it is about everything and because it's about who… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Even mighty states and kingdoms are not exempted. If we look into history, we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
History isn't just what happened, but what happened to whom and why and what would have been different if the cast of characters had… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Only TR openly declared his love for the job. “Nobody ever enjoyed the presidency as I did,” he boasted, and by all evidence that… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“s ships Phoenix and Rose, in the company of three tenders, cast off their moorings at Staten Island and started up the harbor under… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“a people may let a King fall, yet still remain a people, but if a King let his people slip from him, he is… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
Why limit yourself to the experience of your own relatively brief time on earth, according to your biological clock, when the whole realm of… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“He worked at a plain, tall desk at which he wrote standing up or perched on a high stool,” — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Nothing happens in isolation. Everything that happens has consequences. We” — David McCullough Copy Share Image
