My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”—“The more things change, the more they remain the same”—was the oft-quoted observation of a… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
When a friend of Abigail and John Adams was killed at Bunker Hill, Abigail's response was to write a letter to her… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
People ask me when I start one of these projects, what is your theme? I havent the faintest idea. Thats why youre… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I could not do what I do without the kindness, consideration, resourcefulness and work of librarians, particularly in public libraries... What started… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
Once I discovered the endless fascination of doing the research and of doing the writing, I knew I had found what I… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
We all know the old expression, "I'll work my thoughts out on paper." There's something about the pen that focuses the brain… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard. — David McCullough Copy Share Image
According to Adams, Jefferson proposed that he, Adams, do the writing [pf the Declaration of Independence], but that he declined, telling Jefferson… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I write on the typewriter. I like it because I like the feeling of making something with my hands. I like pressing… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
You can't learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can't learn to write without writing, and, in many ways,… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I feel that what I do is a calling. I would pay to do what I do if I had to. I… — 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… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
When you start to write, things begin to come into focus in a way they don't when you're not writing. It's a… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“The source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think....Let us dare to read, think, speak, write.” — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." ( The Course of Human Events , NEH… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing. — David McCullough Copy Share Image
“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." (Interview with NEH chairman Bruce Cole, Humanities… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber. — David McCullough Copy Share Image
I can fairly be called an amateur because I do what I do, in the original sense of the word - for… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
One of the things about the arts that is so important is that in the arts you discover the only way to… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
There are innumerable writing problems in an extended work. One book took a little more than six years. You, the writer, change… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and… — David McCullough Copy Share Image
There are people who are trying to write history for the general reader who can be quite tedious. That said, I do… — 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
