Time lost can never be recovered...and this should be written in flaming letters everywhere. Erik Larson More Quotes by Erik Larson More Quotes From Erik Larson No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck. Erik Larson no-one-cares pluck cities I like all kinds of music, though I tend to prefer jazz and classics. Erik Larson all-kinds jazz kind Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes. Erik Larson eye blue men Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the regime would fall, but as the days passed he saw no evidence of any such outpouring of anger. Erik Larson politics political fall Reading Mission to Paris is like sipping a fine Chateau Margaux: Sublime! Erik Larson paris sublime reading Reading is such a personal thing to me. I'd much rather give someone a gift certificate to a bookstore, and let that person choose his or her own books. Erik Larson reading giving book Hitler was such an anomalous character - he was so over-the-top chaotic in his approach to statesmanship, his manner and in the violence which overwhelmed the country initially. I think diplomats around the world... felt like something like that simply would not be tolerated by the people of Germany. Erik Larson character country thinking There's something so relentless and foul about Hitler and his people, and the way things progressed from year to year. It just got to me in the strangest way. Erik Larson people way years Whenever I finish a book, I start with a blank slate and never have ideas lined up. Erik Larson blank book ideas The Lusitania is important, of course, because this is where Germany began its maritime campaign using this brand-new weapon. We have to appreciate how the submarine, as a weapon against civilian shipping, was a particularly novel thing - so novel that many people at the time dismissed its potential power, its potential relevance. Erik Larson appreciate power time people My favorite zone is from 1890 -1915, that zone that spans the overlap of the so-called Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. People had such a boundless sense of optimism; They felt they could do anything they wanted to do, and they went out and tried to do it. Erik Larson anything optimism age people I found a book facing out that I'd always meant to read: William Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.' About a third of the way through, I suddenly, finally caught up to the fact that Shirer had been there in Berlin, from 1934 on, and was finally kicked out when the U.S. entered the war. Erik Larson war book way fall I'm always looking for a sign - not in a spooky, supernatural way, but in a 'neurotic writer' kind of way. Erik Larson looking always kind way It was David McCullough's 'The Johnstown Flood' that lit my imagination as to how I might one day go about writing book-length nonfiction, though my favorite of his books is 'Mornings on Horseback,' about the young Teddy Roosevelt. Erik Larson day go imagination writing Isaac Cline was a creature of his times. He embodied the hubris of his times and, in many ways, was a victim of the storm, not just in material ways - loss of a family member and damage to the town - but also in metaphoric terms. Erik Larson just storm family loss After I finish writing a chapter, I'll print it out, cut it up into paragraphs, and cut away any transition sentences. Then I shuffle all the paragraphs and lay them out as they come. As I arrange and hold them next to each other, very quickly a natural structure for the chapter presents itself. Erik Larson chapter finish next writing I'd always been interested in maritime history, especially the great liners. I'd have done a book about the Titanic if it hadn't already been done to death by James Cameron and Celine Dion. Erik Larson great death book history My secret weapon is my wife. She's the best judge. She's a scientist and a natural reader. We've developed a detailed code for how she marks a manuscript, and I think it's what saves me from wild digressions. Erik Larson judge best me wife I never recreate dialogue. I have often been asked by people, 'You must have made this up because this is dialogue, right?' Anything in my books that is in quotes comes from some kind of living historical document: a letter, a memoir, a court transcript, a newspaper interview. Erik Larson newspaper never you people I don't really have a bucket list, but if I did, one entry would be to dust off my college Russian and spend a big chunk of a year reading, or trying to read, 'War and Peace' as it was meant to be read, in Russian, with all that rumbly rocks-on-rocks poetry inherent to the language. Erik Larson poetry reading war peace
