Well, There Were Several Things. One Was

Well, There Is Something Beautiful About Ruins. I Mean, In One Sense It's Not That Different From Going To Rome And Looking At The Forum. But It's Changing. It Truly Is. I'm Optimistic But Skeptical.

And That John F. Kennedy Uttered The First Variation Of "ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You" In Detroit On Labor Day In 1960. So Detroit Was Really Central To Democratic Politics United States. Every Democratic Candidate Would Start Their Fall Campaigns In Cadillac Square.

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.

I Look For Two Things When I Am About To Launch Into A Book. First, There Has To Be A Dramatic Arc To The Story Itself That Will Carry Me, And The Reader, From Beginning To End. Second, The Story Has To Weave Through Larger Themes That Can Illuminate The World Of The Subject.

It Was A Time Of Uncommon Possibility And Freedom, When Detroit Created Wondrous And Lasting Things. But Life Can Be Luminescent When It Is Most Vulnerable.