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" Is there really any relationship between artists' personal conduct and their art? Certainly not. "

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" I want to contribute to the culture and keep great writers alive by telling the stories of their lives. "

" With all due respect to re-enactors, I consider the Civil War too tragic a subject to make a game of. "

" Can a great artist be mean-spirited, grasping, harsh to his family, violent in his emotions, vindictive in his hatreds, an all-purpose scoundrel? If our test cases are the likes of Wagner, Picasso, and, let me say, Dickens, the answer is a resounding yes. "

" Myth and mythology often serve constructive and aspirational purposes. But they also do harm. "

" We do ourselves a disservice when we self-servingly massage the record. "

" I got to know Gore Vidal quite well, up front and personal: his magnificent strengths and his appalling, almost other-worldly weaknesses. "

" I first wrote a biography of Thomas Carlyle, and it turned out I loved writing biographies and had a talent for it. I believed I had a contribution to make. "

" Lincoln is a genius of language and a brilliant writer who deserves to be seen as part of the canon of great writers in American literature. "

" Reading Edmund Morris's 'Colonel Roosevelt' is a rewarding journey, as it must also have been for its author, who concludes his three-volume saga begun in 1980 with publication of 'The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.' "

" The challenge of a president himself struggling to find the conjunction between the right words and honest expression, a use of language that respects intellect, truth, and sincerity, has largely been abandoned. "

" Political history is not the only way to approach historical figures. "

" Gore Vidal was a man of immense literary talent, some of which he used well, some of which he wasted. "

" 'Colonel Roosevelt' is compelling reading, and Morris a brilliant biographer who practices his art at the highest level. "

" I started out as a writer of fiction, but nobody wanted to publish my work as a young man. So I decided to put my interest in the narrative writing of biographies. "

" Serious biographies need to have a historical base in facts. "

" Words about Lincoln fill a small but ever-growing library. "

" Lincoln is distinguished from every other president, with the exception of Jefferson, in that we can be certain that he wrote every word to which his name is attached. "

" Obama is a very fine writer with an excellent command of language. His memoir 'Dreams From My Father' is a fine book, but it will not rank as one of the great autobiographies. "

" The value of Eric Foner's 'The Fiery Trial' lies in its comprehensive review of mostly familiar material; in its sensible evaluation of the full range of information already available about Abraham Lincoln and slavery; and in the deft thoroughness of its scholarship. "

" A recommendation to scholars: Write only one book about Lincoln; give it your best shot, and then move on. "

" In his life, Charles Dickens was like the rest of us, but maybe more so: another poor and wonderful soul attempting to deal with his and the world's pain and confusion in the best way he knew how. "

" The post-assassination Lincoln took on a greatly amplified importance to much of the American public, probably the president most deeply reviled in his lifetime and mostly highly regarded after his death. "

" I'm not a Lincoln expert, rather a biographer who has had the pleasure of reading much of what has been written about him from his lifetime to this year of his bicentennial. Some advice: Don't try that unless you have at least five years available. "

" To give credit to Lincoln for moral progression seems beyond the facts and unnecessary for our appreciation of this arguably greatest of all American presidents. "

" Lincoln was the Twain of our politics. "