“I am about to recount occurred during the last years of the 14th century, when the Scottish sceptre was swayed by the gentle but feeble hand of John, who, on being called to the throne, assumed the title of Robert the Third.””
“Alone among the great movie stars, Wayne dared to show us the most perilous as well as the most moving of the seven ages of man. As Randy Roberts and James Olson pointed out, “He was so American, so like his country”
“AUTHOR’S NOTE The First Assassin is a work of fiction, and specifically a work of historical fiction”
“For years before the September 11th attacks, bin Laden told the world precisely what his grievances were, what he would do about them and how he expected his plan to work. As he told Robert Fisk of the Independent, Peter Bergen and Peter Arnett of CNN, Abdel Bari Atwan of the newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi in London and others, his problem was U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. His plan was to wage war against the United States to force our military out of the region, thus making it possible to achieve al Qaeda’s long-term goals of carrying out revolutions in their own countries without American interference. John Miller, an ABC””
“When [Robert] Jamieson, the editor of the 5th edition of Burt's , was in the Highlands in 1814, he met a savage-looking fellow on the top of Ben Lomond who told him that he had been a guide to the mountain for more than forty years, but now 'a Walter Scott' had spoiled his trade. 'I wish,' said he, 'I had him a ferry over Loch Lomond; I should be after sinking the boat, if I drowned myself into the bargain, for ever since he wrote his , as they call it, everybody goes to see that filthy hole, Loch Ketterine. The devil confound his ladies and his lakes!””
“On a summer morning, Lockhart was sure to be found in dressing gown and cap, always chosen by his wife with a view to the picturesque, sitting or walking up and down, writing materials and the terrors of the forthcoming before him, Johnny, his first born, then a beautiful fair-haired boy, never left his side, urging him to romp, and never in vain. Through the lattice of the bay window, Sophia was always to be seen, and always ready to relieve the author when the parent was overpowered by the importunities of the child. A dog or two of the pepper and mustard kind, however, were useful in performing the welcome duty, and undertook to distract the boy not unwillingly by an invitation to scamper. Many a pungent page of sound scholarship was put forth under such influences.””