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I think also there's no question that Lincoln has been diluted down through history in some way, almost by becoming as iconic as he is, in a way he's become diluted.

Abraham Lincoln comes from nothing, has no education, no money, lives in the middle of nowhere on the frontier. And despite the fact that he suffers one tragedy and one setback after another, through sheer force of will, he becomes something extraordinary: not only the president but the person who almost single-handedly united the country.

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

If an honest man is the noblest work of God, then Mr. Lincoln's title to high nobility is clear and unquestioned.

If I have to be typecast, I'd like it to be as Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln never denigrated, never scapegoated, never finger-pointed. And he had reason to.

There were so many odd, strange things about Abraham Lincoln that I think nobody knew how to pigeonhole him.

There is no disputing that Lincoln was a great man.

People don't realize what a brilliant politician Lincoln was. Looking back, we want to ascribe a level of providence to his every decision but he was a cunning and calculating politician; from the cultivation of his image as a hayseed from Illinois, to his ability to keep this country together under dire circumstances.

Lincoln believed in the American people.