David McCullough
David McCullough
David Gaub McCulloughis an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth7 July 1933
CityPittsburgh, United States
CountryUnited States of America
art art-is great-things
The great thing about the arts is that you can only learn to do it by doing it.
book age saws
It was a day and age that saw no reason why one could not learn whatever was required - learn vitally anything - by the close study of books.
character different casts
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.
writing thinking wells
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.
writing temptation awful
There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.
book journey experts
Every book is a new journey. I never felt I was an expert on a subject as I embarked on a project.
fall winter light
I love to go to the places where things happen. I like to walk the walk and see how the light falls and what winter feels like.
history want done
No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read.
real book hypnosis
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.
country fighting years
The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.
suffering stories who-we-are
We should draw on our story, we should draw on our history. If we don't know who we are, if we don't know how we became what we are, we're going to start suffering from all the obvious detrimental effects of amnesia.
courage quality firsts
The first of all qualities of a general is courage.
book rewards infinite
Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance, such infinite reward for time spent, as a good book.
men thinking perfect
I think it's important to remember that these men are not perfect. If they were marble gods, what they did wouldn't be so admirable. The more we see the founders as humans the more we can understand them.