Unless we know where we've been as a country, we don't know where we are or where we are going.

I always sympathize with people who complain about the length of my books. It would take me a year to get through one of them.

There were 900 books on Washington when I began writing on him.

Politics boils down to the stories we tell ourselves. And unfortunately, we tell ourselves different stories.

It's a shameful thing to admit for someone who writes such long books, but I read so slowly that I almost subvocalize.

Hamilton was extremely combative. Not only was he combative, but he also overreacted to anything he perceived as a threat or a criticism.

Ultimately, the appraisal of Grant's presidency rests upon posterity's view of Reconstruction.

With any piece of writing, you're hoping that it will change something, and it seldom does.

Hamilton had a certain social versatility, and in a way, that is understandable because he's someone who rises up from the lowest rungs of society and then scales the top. And he gets to know people from every strata along the way.

I never dreamed that I would be autographing Playbills.