A writer could spend years reading already-published books just to gain a grasp of the historical terrain. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I didn't know anything about the Lusitania. I started reading because I had nothing else in my plate. And as soon as… — 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
I don't really have a bucket list, but if I did, one entry would be to dust off my college Russian and… — 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
Reading Mission to Paris is like sipping a fine Chateau Margaux: Sublime! — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
I started reading the big histories and the small histories, the memoirs and so forth. At some point, I found the diary… — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
Trying to find ideas is the hardest part of my job. You'd think it would be the most fun. Just sitting around… — 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 started deliberately looking for characters, ideally outsiders and ideally Americans. So I just started reading widely, as I tell my students… — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
. . . why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
I envy other writers who claim to have a backlog of books they'd like to write. — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
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 Image
“Her blind endorsement of Hitler’s regime first faded to a kind of sympathetic skepticism, but as summer approached,” — Erik Larson Copy Share Image
