David Maraniss

My basic philosophy is that no human being is a saint.

As a journalist for 35 years, and now author for 20, I've learned that there's always more.

It's hard to know exactly how people develop the characters they do. There could be people from humble beginnings that turn into jerks. Some characteristics are just part of that special soul of that human being.

I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.

I discovered in writing the biography of Bill Clinton that it is actually easier to write a biography of someone who is dead. Although you can't interview them, you have a fuller perspective on their whole life after they're gone and people are more willing to talk about them.

If you start with the mindset that you know nothing, you will learn a lot that nobody knew before.

The young Obama's lack of playing time on the high school basketball team was due more to his ability than the coach's preference for white players.

I want to write for history, not for the moment.

I want my books to last, to stand the test of time, and to do that I focus on the forces that shape the subject - the cultural and sociological geography - to capture them in a way that will explain them no matter what they are doing.