Home Is Really Where Education Does Begin.

If You Get Down About The State Of American Culture, Just Remember There Are Still More Public Libraries In This Country Than There Are Mcdonalds.

I Had Been Writing For About Twelve Years. I Knew Pretty Well How You Could Find Things Out, But I Had Never Been Trained In An Academic Way How To Go About The Research.

We Are All What We Are, In Large Degree, Because Of Others Who Have Helped, Coached, Taught, Counseled, Who Set A Standard By Example, Who've Taken An Interest In Our Interests, Opened Doors, Opened Our Minds, Helped Us See, Who Gave Encouragement When We Needed It, Who Reprimanded Or Prodded When We Needed It, And At Critical Moments, Inspired.

You Have To Get Inside The People You Are Writing About. You Have To Go Below The Surface. And That's To A Very Large Degree What All Writers Are Doing - They're Trying To Get Below The Surface. Whether It's In Fiction Or Poetry Or Writing History And Biography. Some People Make That Possible Because They Write Wonderful Letters And Diaries. And You Have To Sort Of Go Where The Material Is.

With The Truman Book, I Wrote The Entire Account Of His Experiences In World War I Before Going Over To Europe To Follow His Tracks In The War. When I Got There, There Was A Certain Satisfaction In Finding I Had It Right - It Does Look Like That.