“The very worst impulses of humankind can survive generations, centuries, even millennia. And the best of our individual efforts can die with us at the end of a single lifetime.”

“Not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it.”

“As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claws.”

“These are works of history about your century, the twentieth. A fine century-I look forward to the rest of it.”

“Even someone you've inhabited rooms with, and seen naked everyday, seen sitting on the toilet through a half-opened door, can fade out after a while and become an outline.”

“In the end, I always act from the heart, even if I also value reason and tradition. I wish I could explain why, but I don't know.”

“Recently abandoned women can be complicated.”