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I've always wanted to tell a story about Lincoln. I saw a paternal father figure; I saw someone who was completely, stubbornly committed to his ideals, to his vision.

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

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

Politically I did not like Mr. Lincoln, for in him I saw the destroyer.

I was able to sit at Lincoln's side and see how he thought and how he acted, and how he felt about what was going on around him. I felt the pressures that were on him. You can see what people were writing to him, how they were nudging him.

Andrew Lincoln has to be the nicest, ego-less lead actor that I've ever met in my life. His energy and temperament just falls over everyone.

I discovered that Robert Todd Lincoln was there for each of the first three assassinations. I wanted to write about the Lincoln Memorial, so when I found out he had attended its dedication, that helped focus it further.

I had not got over the prejudice against Lincoln with which my personal contact with him in 1858 imbued me.

I never have crushes, apart from my husband Michael, I guess, because I was obsessed with him, and I didn't speak to him for nearly a year. I kept going into the restaurant where he worked to look at him.

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.