Yes, William E. Dodd was the – became the – America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany. Prior to that, he was a professor of history at the University of Chicago – mild-mannered guy. Erik Larson Read Quote
President Hindenburg had ultimate say over whether the government would survive or not. Erik Larson Read Quote
Digression is my passion. I’m not kidding. I love telling the main stories, but in some ways, what I love most is using those narratives as a way of stringing together the interesting stories that people have kind of forgotten and that are kind of surprising. Erik Larson Read Quote
For ‘Thunderstruck’, I discarded about a dozen ideas. And then one afternoon, I was thinking about wireless. I don’t know why. I guess because it’s become so ubiquitous. I was thinking that maybe there’s something I could do about the origin of wireless, so I did what any self-respecting person does these days: I Googled ‘wireless.’ Erik Larson Read Quote
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 Read Quote
I usually look for stories with barriers to entry, something complex enough that no one else is going to do it. Erik Larson Read Quote
I’m always looking for a sign – not in a spooky, supernatural way, but in a ‘neurotic writer’ kind of way. Erik Larson Read Quote
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 Read Quote
The Lusitania is a monument to this optimism, to the hubris of the era. I love that, because where there is hubris, there is tragedy. Erik Larson Read Quote
I’ve heard from the movie marketplace that James Cameron did such a killer job with ‘Titanic’ that it’s almost impossible to do anything better. Erik Larson Read Quote
