No book is an island, as John Donne didn’t write but could have.
Bright, Infinite Future wouldn’t exist without the patience, editing, love, and support of those who know me best—Deni, Jonah, Jenya, and Steve. Since my wife Deni is a thread through the book, not to mention my life, you simply need to know that when I asked her after finishing an earlier book, “Would you like a dedication?” she answered, “No, I want an apology.”
This book also wouldn’t exist without Elisabeth Dyssegaard’s confidence in me and brilliant editing of me, including her belief in the truth that “the eraser’s more important than the paper.” I’m also enormously lucky to have the best writer/researcher/fact checker I’ve ever encountered, Douglas Grant, as well as my agents David Kuhn and Lauren Sharp for finding me the perfect harbor and encouraging me throughout.
I’m very grateful to Jonathan Alter, Wayne Barrett, David Bender, Joan Claybrook, Danny Goldberg, Ken Lerer, John Richard, Bob Shrum, John Siegel, Jerry Skurnick, and Michael Waldman for reading all or parts of the book to red flag mistakes of fact, content, or tone. However bad readers might think this book is, trust me, it would have been worse without them.
I also greatly appreciate the time taken by those 75 people who gave interviews to remind me of events over the decades covered by this book, which has been the equivalent of crowd-sourcing to this memoirist. So have been my 200 shows on air with my Both Sides Now colleagues, left and right, whom I’ve learned volumes from every week for five years. I hope in turn they and readers can learn from this volume.
—Mark Green