The invention of gas and electric heaters has not meant the end of fireplaces. Printing did not end penmanship, television did not kill radio, movies did not kill theatre, and home videos did not kill movie theaters, although all these things were falsely predicted. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
There’s a lot about the early history of salt that isn’t known, including who first used it and when or how it was discovered that it preserved food. We were sort of handed, in history, this world where everyone knew about salt. And it’s not clear exactly how that developed. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
I sometimes think there is nothing really to be said about a novel but ‘read the book.’ I have a jaundiced view of literary critics. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
My most memorable job was on a lobster boat. I was a pretty strong kid, and they just needed someone who could haul pots on 200 ft. of line. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
I grew up in a neighbourhood where there was a lot of fighting. It’s what boys did during school, during recess, after school. And I was a fairly large kid. So everyone wanted to see if they could take me on. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
The inventors we remember didn’t invent anything. They’re the people who took somebody else’s invention and made it commercially viable. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
I started writing ‘Cod’ at a time when people were first beginning to take an interest in the problem of fisheries because the Grand Banks had closed. Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
Everyone always gets a little irritated by imitators, but mostly I’m flattered. What if you never did anything anyone wanted to copy? Mark Kurlansky Read Quote
