Clive Cussler

It's a quirk of mine; I love neat garages. ”

I had horrible experiences in Hollywood. ”

I was driving by an auto auction one day, and they were auctioning off a beautiful Hispano-Suiza. I started bidding even though I hadn't even signed up with the officials. The last bid was $50,000, and it was mine. And I thought, 'My God, what have I done? I've never spent more than $500 in my life.' That was the first one. ”

After the Dirk Pitt books became best-sellers, I could afford to buy the more exotic examples of classic autos. ”

I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action. ”

If ever a car was created by designers with dreams of grandeur, it had to be the 1958 Buick Limited: the heftiest, highest-priced and most opulent monster ever to hit the street in the '50s. ”

I'd heard about a shipwreck that was never found - John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard. So I thought, 'Well, I'll go look for it.' ”

I suppose, because I've been able to make a very good living writing books, that going out and finding another million dollars under the sea is not the fascination. The fascination is in finding the ship. ”

NUMA is basically trying to preserve our maritime heritage by finding lost shipwrecks of historical significance before they are gone. ”

If you have some natural talent and really want to write, you should read the books of someone who's very successful in your genre. You don't want to plagiarize, but you want to learn from that author. ”