Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and need to know.
David McCullough
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
David McCullough
Age: 91
Born: 1933
Born: July 7
Author
Biographer
Historian
Journalist
Writer
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
David Gaub McCullough
David G. McCullough
Really
Time
Began
Start
Understand
Find
Need
Needs
Writing
More quotes by David McCullough
There are no people on earth in whom a spirit of enthusiastic zeal is so readily kindled, and burns so remarkably, as Americans
David McCullough
May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
David McCullough
People often ask me if I'm working on a book. That's not how I feel. I feel like I work in a book. It's like putting myself under a spell. And this spell, if you will, is so real to me that if I have to leave my work for a few days, I have to work myself back into the spell when I come back. It's almost like hypnosis.
David McCullough
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 been different.
David McCullough
My next book is also set in the eighteenth century. It's about the Revolution, with the focus on the year 1776. It's about Washington and the army and the war. It's the nadir, the low point of the United States of America.
David McCullough
You can't learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can't learn to write without writing, and, in many ways, you can't learn to think without thinking. Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.
David McCullough
The most interesting people are never perfect.
David McCullough
I think it is one of the most extraordinary elections, a turning point for our country and for the world. That remarkable young man [Barack Obama] has kept his demeanor, kept his temperament and has shown a power to inspire. I see what energy that he has inspired among the young. Well, it inspires us old goats too.
David McCullough
Every book is a new journey. I never felt I was an expert on a subject as I embarked on a project.
David McCullough
I feel that what I do is a calling. I would pay to do what I do if I had to. I will never live long enough to do the work I want to do: the books I would like to write, the ideas I would like to explore.
David McCullough
There is a human longing to go back to other times. We all know how when we were children we asked our parents, What was it like when you were a kid? I think it probably has something to do with our survival as a species.
David McCullough
The truth isn't just the facts. You can have all the facts imaginable and miss the truth, just as you can have facts missing or some wrong, and reach the larger truth.
David McCullough
People are so helpful. People will stop what they're doing to show you something, to walk with you through a section of the town, or explain how a suspension bridge really works.
David McCullough
A leader must look and act the part.
David McCullough
Read. Read. Read. Read. Read great books. Read poetry, history, biography. Read the novels that have stood the test of time. And read closely.
David McCullough
Never assume that people in positions of responsibility are behaving responsibly.
David McCullough
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
David McCullough
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
David McCullough
You've got to marinate your head, in that time and culture. You've got to become them. (Speaking about researching, and reading, and immersing yourself in History)
David McCullough
Nobody ever lived in the past.
David McCullough