Quotes from Clive Cussler

When I started writing, I just hoped for a nice little paperback series.

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.

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.'

They botched 'Raise the Titanic' so badly that I waited 20 years to do it again.

I was always a history buff.

Either you've got the bug, or you haven't. There are many things I'd rather be doing than writing a book.

If you are a writer, Saturday and Sunday don't mean anything.

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 know you're the only pistol champion we have, but I'd rather they no see enough of you to hit. You're also the only wife I have...""You're so sweet.'"...at the moment.

I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.

After the Dirk Pitt books became best-sellers, I could afford to buy the more exotic examples of classic autos.

Maybe some day they'll find me behind the computer, just bones and cobwebs.

I'm considered the 'old daddy of adventure.'

When I type 'The End,' it's like being paroled from prison.

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.

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.

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.

I was the kid who stared out the window. I fantasized myself on the deck of pirate ships - Cussler at the bridge.

Nobody gives a damn about the Merrimac. You know how it is. Winners write the history books.

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.

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'm not working on the Great American Novel. All I am doing, I hope, is entertaining readers.

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.