“No one wanted the job. What had seemed one of the least challenging tasks facing Franklin D. Roosevelt as newly elected president… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“But Hitler’s government was neither civil nor coherent, and the nation lurched from one inexplicable moment to another.” — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
There's something so relentless and foul about Hitler and his people, and the way things progressed from year to year. It just… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Hitler was such an anomalous character - he was so over-the-top chaotic in his approach to statesmanship, his manner and in the… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“There began to appear before my romantic eyes...a vast and complicated network of espionage, terror, sadism and hate, from which no one,… — 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
“The thing that weighed on him most, however, was the irrationality of the world in which he now found himself. To some… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“Within two months we will have pushed Hitler so far into a corner that he’ll squeak.” It was possibly the greatest miscalculation… — 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
