62 Quotes by David Maraniss

I discovered in writing the biography of Bill Clinton that it is actually easier to write a biography of someone who is dead. Although you can't interview them, you have a fuller perspective on their whole life after they're gone and people are more willing to talk about them.

I said that I'm only there to write the truth, I'm not going to cover anything up, but I'll put everything in context and get as close to the truth of this person as I can.

People always try to separate the good from the bad in Clinton and say that, if he had not done certain things, he would have been a great president. But you can't do that. Those were his major characteristics.

He had his flaws, but he also had important characteristics.

I think he's emblematic of a certain type. He wasn't against the war, just didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted to get on with his life and not let the world get in the way.

That's the moment that made him a saint in Latin America. Everything he did and said before and after that is crystallized in that moment, the point where he's finally got the world stage.

War doesn't go away when the bullets stop. Vietnam still is as relevant today as it was then.

My favorites are Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, but those are a little off in terms of getting Detroit right on the head. But of course, you know, "Dancing In The Streets." You can't forget the Motor City. And we can't forget the Motor City.

It seemed that I could tell the whole story pretty powerfully in those 18 months between October of '62 and the spring of '64 when they were all at their peak. And yet you could see some of the shadows of Detroit's demise coming.