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.
The culinary scene in Phoenix is incredible.
I was the kid who stared out the window. I fantasized myself on the deck of pirate ships - Cussler at the bridge.
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.
I'm not a dedicated writer in the sense of Stephen King.
I'm a storyteller.
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.
My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.
They botched 'Raise the Titanic' so badly that I waited 20 years to do it again.
They screwed up 'Raise the Titanic!' so badly, I stay away from Hollywood. I won't cheat my readers with another piece of crap.
It's a job. I entertain my readers. I get up in the morning, and I start typing.
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.
I collect vintage cars, so you always find them in my books.
If I were to say I'm looking for treasure, people would come up with the money. When I say I'm looking for a historic wreck, they're not interested.
