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
I envy other writers who claim to have a backlog of books they'd like to write. — 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
A writer could spend years reading already-published books just to gain a grasp of the historical terrain. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I found a book facing out that I'd always meant to read: William Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.'… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I write to be read. I'm quite direct about that. I'm not writing to thrill colleagues or to impress the professors at… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
One question that often comes up is why, in this age of blogs and tweets and instant digital communication of all kinds,… — 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
As a rule, I am very skeptical of tying books to anniversaries. I don't think readers care. I also feel that it… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
The reason I choose the stories I choose - and it's why it takes me so long to find ideas - is… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I was a promiscuous reader. I loved Nancy Drew books and Tom Swift - never the Hardy Boys - but I also… — 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
I was once again looking for a book idea, and I remembered Holmes, but I specifically remembered that there was this World's… — 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
“Like most people, I acquired my initial sense of the era from books and photographs that left me with the impression that… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
In hunting ideas for books, I look for stories about long-past events that once commanded the world's attention but that, for one… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I'm open to writing just about anything. I love writing the books that I write. They do tend to be on dark… — 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
At some point in the idea process, I simply wear myself down and force myself to choose. But here's the thing: Once… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
It was David McCullough's 'The Johnstown Flood' that lit my imagination as to how I might one day go about writing book-length… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I knew Berlin would have to become a kind of character in my new book, 'In the Garden of Beasts'. I had… — 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
