I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it, it's entirely… — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
Write: write letters. Keep journals. Besides your children, there is no surer way of achieving immortality. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
The reason why you do history, and particularly why you do war, is that you want to make sure that in the next war,… — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans? — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived.… — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what… — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story". — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
We strain to listen to the ghosts and echoes of our inexpressibly wise past, and we have an obligation to maintain these places, to… — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn. — Ken Burns Copy Share Image
