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.
— Clive Cussler
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.
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 have a large collection of town cars because when I was just a snipe in the gutter, growing up in Los Angeles, a town car drove by. I remember running in the house to get my mother so she could see it. It was utterly magnificent.
I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.
I honestly thought I probably did sell 100 million books. That doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me.
The culinary scene in Phoenix is incredible.
Either you've got the bug, or you haven't. There are many things I'd rather be doing than writing a book.
I don't think of myself as a writer.
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.
My books are easy to read. No folderol.
It's a job. I entertain my readers. I get up in the morning, and I start typing.
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 had horrible experiences in Hollywood.
If it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing.
The fascination for me is searching the unknown for a mystery.
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.
My son's name is Dirk - I named Dirk Pitt after him when he was about three years old.
I love doing the research for the novels. For me, the writing is hard work.
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.'
I can appreciate other writers' works.
I'm always interested in something that's missing.
NUMA is basically trying to preserve our maritime heritage by finding lost shipwrecks of historical significance before they are gone.
Some people are drawn to a van Gogh or a Rembrandt. Some are attracted to exotic guns. Coins. Stamps. I am attracted to cars.
After putting the kids to bed, I would think about what I wanted to write.
I didn't have the great American novel burning inside me, but I felt I could try my hand at popular fiction.
When I started writing, I just hoped for a nice little paperback series.
I'm a storyteller.
I never had a highfalutin' view of what I write.
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.
When I type 'The End,' it's like being paroled from prison.
Nobody gives a damn about the Merrimac. You know how it is. Winners write the history books.
They screwed up 'Raise the Titanic!' so badly, I stay away from Hollywood. I won't cheat my readers with another piece of crap.
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.
I collect vintage cars, so you always find them in my 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.
I was driving by an auto auction one day, and they were auctioning off a beautiful Hispano-Suiza. I started bidding even though I hadn't even signed up with the officials. The last bid was $50,000, and it was mine. And I thought, 'My God, what have I done? I've never spent more than $500 in my life.' That was the first one.
I was always a history buff.
Some men play golf. I've got this crazy thing about maintaining our nation's maritime heritage.
I've always liked Mexican food.
I'm not a dedicated writer in the sense of Stephen King.
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.
Maybe some day they'll find me behind the computer, just bones and cobwebs.
I want it to be easy to read. I'm not writing exotic literature.
I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.
After the Dirk Pitt books became best-sellers, I could afford to buy the more exotic examples of classic autos.
My forte is the plotting. You sit down, and you work out a plot.
There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship.
