They botched 'Raise the Titanic' so badly that I waited 20 years to do it again. Clive Cussler More Quotes by Clive Cussler More Quotes From Clive Cussler To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They're out there, and they're whispering. Clive Cussler luck inspirational history I plot as I go. Many novelists write an outline that has almost as many pages as their ultimate book. Others knock out a brief synopsis... Do what is comfortable. If you have to plot out every move your characters make, so be it. Just make sure there is a plausible purpose behind their machinations. A good reader can smell a phony plot a block away. Clive Cussler block book moving Sometimes my plot lines are so convoluted, I get calls from friends at 3 am saying; you SOB, you'll never pull this one off. Clive Cussler plot-lines writing sometimes To create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability. Clive Cussler research want firsts I must say one thing about southern down-home brewed coffee with chicory. If you have worms, you'll never have them again. Clive Cussler southern coffee home Giordino...simply sighed in resignation. "Who else," he asked no one in particular, "but Dirk Pitt could tramp off into a blizzard on an uninhabited backwater island in the Antarctic and discover a beautiful girl? Clive Cussler girl islands beautiful My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies. Clive Cussler raised my-friends jokes She was a Privately funded spy ship owned by the corporation and headed by Juan Cabtillo. The Oregon was his brain child and his one true love. Clive Cussler oregon brain children When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt. Clive Cussler hero writing fun There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship. Clive Cussler ship mystery sea lost I collect vintage cars, so you always find them in my books. Clive Cussler find you always vintage 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. Clive Cussler you born revolution war If you are a writer, Saturday and Sunday don't mean anything. Clive Cussler you saturday sunday mean I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted. Clive Cussler write beginning because historical I don't like interior decorating. It looks gorgeous, but it doesn't have that lived-in look. Clive Cussler interior like look looks People have said I belong in a rubber room because I look for wrecks, and when I find them, I just do a survey. I don't look for treasure or artifacts. Clive Cussler find look treasure people I am not like Stephen King, who writes one book, then writes another. I finish a book and go off and... look for wrecks. Then, six months later, I might start another book. Clive Cussler king i-am look book Some men play golf. I've got this crazy thing about maintaining our nation's maritime heritage. Clive Cussler nation crazy golf men She had the kids during the day and I would have them at night. That way they were never alone. I would put the kids to bed, and then I had nothing to do and nobody to talk to, so I would write. Clive Cussler nobody alone day night When I was in the military, I socked away $100 every month. When I was discharged in 1954, I got home at 5 A.M. By 10 A.M., I was pulling out of a foreign car dealership in Pasadena in a new Jaguar XK120. Clive Cussler new car military home