Ken Burns Quotes

I think fiction recues history from its confusions.

History is not what happened 200 or 2,000 years ago; it's a story about what happened 200 or 2,000 years ago.

So you want another story?" Uhh... no. We would like to know what really happened." Doesn't the telling of something always become a story?" Uhh... perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don't want any invention. We want the 'straight facts,' as you say in English." Isn't telling about something--using words, English or Japanese--already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention?

History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

History had its own way of explaining things. The way historians explain things is by telling a story.

There is no such thing as a final draft of history.

History is not just a story related by a fool.

History happens all around us.

History is merely gossip.

History breaks down in images not into stories.

History is about who tells it.

Everything we say is a story. But nothing we say is just a story.

History after all is the true poetry.

I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.

History is always changing.

There are always two or three or four sides to every story.

A memoir is my version of events. My perspective. I choose what to tell and what to omit. I choose the adjectives to describe a situation, and in that sense, I'm creating a form of fiction.

History is nothing but a procession of false absolutes.

History is not everything, but it is the starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.

History is a never ending argument.

History is complex.

There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.

History is a pageant, not a philosophy.

Historians usually record events based on the time and date of when they occurred.

History is not only the record of the past, but also the discipline of investigating and interpreting the past. The study of history develops habits of critical thinking and effective writing, as well as cultivates the careful analysis of various types of quantitative and qualitative evidence.