The truth is ships and aircraft have been vanishing with tragic regularity in every part of the world since they were invented.
I purchased a 1955 Rolls-Royce that my wife liked because it was new the year we were married. Then came a 1926 Hispano-Suiza Cabriolet that I bought at my first classic car auction after I had three martinis. As more cars were added, I had to buy a warehouse.
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.
I was always a history buff.
Maybe some day they'll find me behind the computer, just bones and cobwebs.
Some people are drawn to a van Gogh or a Rembrandt. Some are attracted to exotic guns. Coins. Stamps. I am attracted to cars.
I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.
I don't like interior decorating. It looks gorgeous, but it doesn't have that lived-in look.
I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.
My forte is the plotting. You sit down, and you work out a plot.
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.
I'm not a great writer of literature. I'm an entertainer.
I have a large collection of town cars because when I was just a snipe in the gutter, growing up in Los Angeles, a town car drove by. I remember running in the house to get my mother so she could see it. It was utterly magnificent.
Nobody gives a damn about the Merrimac. You know how it is. Winners write the history books.
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.'
NUMA is basically trying to preserve our maritime heritage by finding lost shipwrecks of historical significance before they are gone.
Some men play golf. I've got this crazy thing about maintaining our nation's maritime heritage.
Matthew's all right. Originally, I wanted Errol Flynn, but McConaughey should be good as Dirk Pitt.
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.
When I started writing, I just hoped for a nice little paperback series.
