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.
Clive Cussler
There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship.
If I were to say I'm looking for treasure, people would come up with the money. When I say I'm looking for a historic wreck, they're not interested.
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.
There's a little bit of Pitt in everybody.
My son's name is Dirk - I named Dirk Pitt after him when he was about three years old.
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.
My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.
It's a quirk of mine; I love neat garages.
I can't retire. My readers won't let me.
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 want it to be easy to read. I'm not writing exotic literature.
The fascination for me is searching the unknown for a mystery.
I'm writing for entertainment. I like people to reach the end and feel they got their money's worth.
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.
Some men play golf. I've got this crazy thing about maintaining our nation's maritime heritage.
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.
I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.
I was the kid who stared out the window. I fantasized myself on the deck of pirate ships - Cussler at the bridge.
I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.
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.'
If you have some natural talent and really want to write, you should read the books of someone who's very successful in your genre. You don't want to plagiarize, but you want to learn from that author.
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'm considered the 'old daddy of adventure.'
I don't like interior decorating. It looks gorgeous, but it doesn't have that lived-in look.
Some people are drawn to a van Gogh or a Rembrandt. Some are attracted to exotic guns. Coins. Stamps. I am attracted to cars.
When we find a ship, we turn it over to the state or federal government. It's purely historical. I've never made a dime on any of it.
If it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing.
I was always a history buff.
I love doing the research for the novels. For me, the writing is hard work.
There's no literary merit in my books.
I was born about 80 years too late. If you were a kid in 1910, the Fourth of July was a big deal. You knew all about the Revolution, and you still had Civil War veterans.
I suppose, because I've been able to make a very good living writing books, that going out and finding another million dollars under the sea is not the fascination. The fascination is in finding the ship.
I get up in the morning, get to the office, and write until about six o'clock in the evening.
My forte is the plotting. You sit down, and you work out a plot.
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.
If you are a writer, Saturday and Sunday don't mean anything.
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.
I'm not a great writer of literature. I'm an entertainer.
They botched 'Raise the Titanic' so badly that I waited 20 years to do it again.
Matthew's all right. Originally, I wanted Errol Flynn, but McConaughey should be good as Dirk Pitt.
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.
Nobody gives a damn about the Merrimac. You know how it is. Winners write the history books.
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.
