Clive Cussler
I've always been a Civil War buff. In fact, the ships that always fascinated me the most were the ironclads, because they were the start of an era.
Some men play golf. I've got this crazy thing about maintaining our nation's maritime heritage.
I am not like Stephen King, who writes one book, then writes another. I finish a book and go off and... look for wrecks. Then, six months later, I might start another book.
Maybe some day they'll find me behind the computer, just bones and cobwebs.
When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt.
I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.
I'm not a great writer of literature. I'm an entertainer.
If it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing.
I'd heard about a shipwreck that was never found - John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard. So I thought, 'Well, I'll go look for it.'
There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship.
I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.
If you are a writer, Saturday and Sunday don't mean anything.
She had the kids during the day and I would have them at night. That way they were never alone. I would put the kids to bed, and then I had nothing to do and nobody to talk to, so I would write.
My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.
When I was in the military, I socked away $100 every month. When I was discharged in 1954, I got home at 5 A.M. By 10 A.M., I was pulling out of a foreign car dealership in Pasadena in a new Jaguar XK120.
I don't like interior decorating. It looks gorgeous, but it doesn't have that lived-in look.
It's a quirk of mine; I love neat garages.
Shipwrecks are incredible mysteries.
I'd give my left arm for the Merrimack.
A lot of people don't understand why I'm not out diving for treasure.
There's a little bit of Pitt in everybody.
They botched 'Raise the Titanic' so badly that I waited 20 years to do it again.
People have said I belong in a rubber room because I look for wrecks, and when I find them, I just do a survey. I don't look for treasure or artifacts.
Matthew's all right. Originally, I wanted Errol Flynn, but McConaughey should be good as Dirk Pitt.
There's no literary merit in my books.
I'm writing for entertainment. I like people to reach the end and feel they got their money's worth.
I was the kid who stared out the window. I fantasized myself on the deck of pirate ships - Cussler at the bridge.
I'm considered the 'old daddy of adventure.'
The truth is ships and aircraft have been vanishing with tragic regularity in every part of the world since they were invented.
They screwed up 'Raise the Titanic!' so badly, I stay away from Hollywood. I won't cheat my readers with another piece of crap.
The fascination for me is searching the unknown for a mystery.
Nobody gives a damn about the Merrimac. You know how it is. Winners write the history books.
My forte is the plotting. You sit down, and you work out a plot.
When I type 'The End,' it's like being paroled from prison.
I had horrible experiences in Hollywood.
After the Dirk Pitt books became best-sellers, I could afford to buy the more exotic examples of classic autos.
I purchased a 1955 Rolls-Royce that my wife liked because it was new the year we were married. Then came a 1926 Hispano-Suiza Cabriolet that I bought at my first classic car auction after I had three martinis. As more cars were added, I had to buy a warehouse.
If ever a car was created by designers with dreams of grandeur, it had to be the 1958 Buick Limited: the heftiest, highest-priced and most opulent monster ever to hit the street in the '50s.
I never had a highfalutin' view of what I write.
It's a job. I entertain my readers. I get up in the morning, and I start typing.
I want it to be easy to read. I'm not writing exotic literature.
My books are easy to read. No folderol.
When I started writing, I just hoped for a nice little paperback series.
My job is to entertain the readers in such a manner that, when they reach the end of the book, they feel like they've gotten their money's worth.
I can't retire. My readers won't let me.
I didn't have the great American novel burning inside me, but I felt I could try my hand at popular fiction.
I'm not working on the Great American Novel. All I am doing, I hope, is entertaining readers.
After putting the kids to bed, I would think about what I wanted to write.
Either you've got the bug, or you haven't. There are many things I'd rather be doing than writing a book.
I'm not a dedicated writer in the sense of Stephen King.