Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were first and foremost in the fear suppression business.

If youre a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.

Being a professional means doing your job on the days you don't want to do it

Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.

With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist.

If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past.