In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are. - Gore Vidal

Basler finds my Lincoln the 'phoniest historical novel I have ever had the pleasure of reading.'... Also, 'more than half the book could never have happened as told.' Unfortunately, he doesn't say which half. If I knew, we could then cut it free from the phony half and publish the result as Basler's Vidal's Lincoln.

POWERS: Well, good morning Mr. Kreton, and how are we today?
KRETON: Absolutely wallowing in the twentieth century.

...because academics everywhere are forever attacking one another, and I had long since learned that one must never believe what a teacher says of another.