David McCullough Quotes

I did a lot of background and research on 'End Of Watch,' and I definitely used certain skills that I learned.

The heart and soul of good writing is research; you should write not what you know but what you can find out about.

At least half my writing time is spent researching. So for every hour I'm actually clicking on the keyboard, I'm spending another hour trying to figure out some tiny detail I need answered.

I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.

I am a writer and editor with a passion for true storytelling. To me, science matters, research matters and knowledge matters, whatever the field.

I'm a research queen.

I understand the difference between journalism and scholarship that comes 20 years later.

Research to me is as important or more important than the writing. It is the foundation upon which the book is built.

I never worked a job that required research. I'm not really good at it, to be honest.

I'm big on research. I love research, so I tend to do a lot of reading.

To be a good researcher is to be a good detective, and I enjoy ferreting out tidbits of information. For a diary book like 'A Coal Miner's Bride,' newspapers come in handy for small everyday details such as weather reports.

As a journalist I'm comfortable doing library research, and I did a lot! I had a fellowship at Radcliff for a year which gave me access to the Harvard system.

In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.

What I learned in school made me a better journalist and a better writer because forensic science is, as scientific disciplines must be, about critical thinking and objective analysis.

I love doing research.

Great questions make great reporting.

But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story.

I think with every book you realize you are partway through and there is something really elementary that you should have researched.

I'm not a big believer in doing too much research - I think you can get lost in it. You can get constrained by it, which I think is a mistake. But if you've done your homework, the audience feels it.

The initial research will be very indiscriminate. I do a lot of reading, buy a stack of books and read and digest them, and then I start doing phone interviews and archival research and then the travelling.

You have to have really wide reading habits and pay attention to the news and just everything that's going on in the world: you need to. If you get this right, then the writing is a piece of cake.

There's the wonder of being able to do research from your own living room, of course. I do find that my biggest research issue, though, is how to frame my questions.

From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct and interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there.

I've got research, I have my own life experience I can apply, and I have my imagination.

Scepticism is as important for a good journalist as it is for a good scientist.