I'm very perverse. If someone tells me I have to read a book, I'm instantly disinclined to do so. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Whenever I finish a book, I start with a blank slate and never have ideas lined up. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Reading is such a personal thing to me. I'd much rather give someone a gift certificate to a bookstore, and let that… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I read a book called 'Transatlantic', which is a history of the great shipping lines. Also, of course, I had read about… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
The most painstaking phase comes when the manuscript is set in 'type' for the first time and the first proofs of the… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
My goal is to produce as rich and historical an experience for the reader as I possibly can, to the point where… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I had a nice part at big newspapers, small newspapers, and then I went to a very big newspaper - 'The Wall… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Digression is my passion. I love telling the main stories, but in some ways, what I love most is using those narratives… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
What drove me to do 'Dead Wake' was that after doing the most preliminary of reading and scoping out what kinds of… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
To me, writing is a very physical process. I lay out the entire book with the two narratives side by side on… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I've heard from the movie marketplace that James Cameron did such a killer job with 'Titanic' that it's almost impossible to do anything better. — Erik Larson Copy Share
As a rule, I am very skeptical of tying books to anniversaries. I don't think readers care. I also feel that it just about… — Erik Larson Copy Share
“look as if they had been plucked from the Palace of Versailles or a Jacobean mansion—that you were aboard a ship being propelled far… — Erik Larson Copy Share
That's what I love about history - nuance. I don't believe in unalloyed heroes. Everyone's got warts, and everyone's got a surprise side. — Erik Larson Copy Share
“Holmes was charming and gracious, but something about him made Belknap uneasy. He could not have defined it. Indeed, for the next several decades… — Erik Larson Copy Share
. . . why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. — Erik Larson Copy Share
“At present," he said, "I am responsible for conveying my associates to a place called Chicago. I understand it is somewhere in the hinterland.” — Erik Larson Copy Share
I knew from an online search that the Wisconsin State Historical Society, on the vast University of Wisconsin campus, held the papers of Sigrid… — Erik Larson Copy Share
Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the regime would fall, but as the days passed he… — Erik Larson Copy Share
I envy other writers who claim to have a backlog of books they'd like to write. — Erik Larson Copy Share
Trying to find ideas is the hardest part of my job. You'd think it would be the most fun. Just sitting around reading whatever… — Erik Larson Copy Share
“Her blind endorsement of Hitler’s regime first faded to a kind of sympathetic skepticism, but as summer approached,” — Erik Larson Copy Share
“Perhaps, Herr Ditzen, it is less important where one lives than how one lives.” — Erik Larson Copy Share
I figured, correctly, that Berlin in February was not a destination coveted by tourists. I found good airfares on Lufthansa, an airline I quite… — Erik Larson Copy Share
“It was truly a transitional moment: There he was, at the cusp of the twentieth century, using the telephone to send a telegram.” — Erik Larson Copy Share
