The following interview, reprinted here with permission of AudioBooksToday.com:
Interview With Clive Cussler
From June 2001
Clive Cussler, famous for his adventure novels featuring Dirk Pitt, spoke to us from his Arizona home about sequels, car collections and shipwrecks.
A seafaring adventurer, Cussler has been at the forefront of numerous maritime discoveries, some of which he wrote about in his nonfiction book, "The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks" (co-written with Craig Dirgo). Interestingly, Cussler and his wife chose a landlocked existence, spending most of their time in Arizona, with another residence in Colorado. However, he said he spends "a couple of months out of the year looking for shipwrecks."
Just as Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in his films, Cussler "appears" in his novels. He once introduced Dirk Pitt, his "hero," to an antique car collector named "Clive Cussler." That character still appears occasionally in the Pitt novels and the author said he received over 300 positive fan letters the first time his fictional self appeared in print.
Cussler was "in advertising" until 1975, when his breakthrough Dirk Pitt novel, "Raise the Titanic" was published. Pitt's most recent outing was in "Atlantis Found." There is also a spin-off series chronicling adventures from "The NUMA Files." For audiophiles new to Cussler's work, NUMA stands for the National Underwater and Marine Agency, which is much like the CIA of the marine world. In another example of how his life mirrors his art, Cussler helped to found a real-life NUMA, which is a not-for-profit agency that locates shipwrecks.
Rochelle O'Gorman: I take it that Dirk Pitt is your alter ego.
Clive Cussler: Oh, I suppose, in a sense. I always joke that when Pitt and I started out together we were both 36. Now he's knocking a little over 40 and I'm 68, so it ain't fair. I gave him my height, 6'3", and green eyes, although his are much greener than mine. We had the same weight at the time, 185. He's still that and I've gone up to 200. And he certainly scores better with the girls than I ever did.
O'Gorman: Well, haven't you been married for a long time?
Cussler: Yeah, it's going on 45 years.
O'Gorman: In some ways I find that Pitt stops just shy of being a superhero.
Cussler: No, he's human. He gets beat up and shot up, but he does in the villain at the end. He's the kind of a guy that can take an elegant lady to a nice gourmet restaurant and order the right wine and then the next day he's down at the saloon slopping beer with the boys and watching football. So he's not a James Bond, he's more of an all-American type, a hero.
O'Gorman: Why did you give him a sidekick with Al Giordino?
Cussler: I wanted to be different. All the rest of them are single heroes and I thought this way Pitt and Giordino could play off each other. And Giordino is the only one in the books who's taken from a real character, an old Air Force buddy of mine whose name is Al Giordino. He's still around. He's a retired stone mason in Florida.
O'Gorman: Does this guy chew nails for breakfast?
Cussler: No, he was just fun. I described him in the book as 5'4," broad shoulders, a beefy little Italian with a great sardonic wit.
O'Gorman: Did you grow up reading graphic novels about superheroes? Your writing is obviously more fleshed out than a graphic novel, but it calls to mind that genre.
Cussler: Oh, sure. I grew up with all the comic books like Dr. Savage, Superman, Batman, all of them. And then there were the movies, the older movies, the black and whites. There were more big heroes then, particularly in westerns. And then there were the more down to earth detective types. They were more human, I think, in those days than they are today.
O'Gorman: What do you mean?
Cussler: Well, you take all the young actors today under the age of 30 and they all look like they came out of a cookie cutter. There's nothing really distinguished about any of them. Where's the Glenn Fords, the Jimmy Stewarts, the Gary Coopers, the John Waynes, the Humphrey Bogarts, the Jimmy Cagneys? None of them have a distinctive voice. Other than the Jack Nicholson and one or two others, you don't have the super heroes around like you used to.
O'Gorman: You've written 15 Dirk Pitt novels and a couple of others. Don't you run out of ideas?
Cussler: It's getting harder, believe me. With the last book I'm really struggling because I use about six plots in every book. It's not like one single plot, so the well's starting to run dry.
If you've ever followed any author - you've had favorites, I'm sure - you always know when they reach their peak. There's only so much in you. James A. Michener, for example. I remember when I read "Centennial," I had to go back and read "Hawaii" and "The Source" and I knew he was starting to lose it. And Ian Fleming. I remember when I read "The Man with a Golden Gun" and I knew he'd lost it. So, I would say "Atlantis Found" is probably Cussler's peak. From now on it's downhill.
O'Gorman: You never know. You may start a new series and find all new energy.
Cussler: Well, I'm working on two (the Pitt books and its spin-off, the NUMA Files series). And then they want me to come up with another one that is a spin-off on a few chapters from a book where I had these mercenaries with this old derelict ship. It was loaded with missiles and it could do 50 knots and had big engines. It was run like a corporation; the captain was the chairman of the board. They want to take this concept of this ship and have it going around the world, getting into mischief. They also condense some of the books for juvenile readers.
O'Gorman: You have an empire!
Cussler: And they still want me to do another sequel to my shipwreck book, "The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks."
O'Gorman: You write the NUMA Files books with a partner. Does that mean you come up with the parameters of the story and then someone else fills it in?
Cussler: Yeah, Paul Kemprecos, in this case. I picked him because he did a neat little detective series -- a Greek detective in Cape Cod ("Bluefin Blues" and "Feeding Frenzy"). Everything was based in and around water; the guy was a diver. I had to have somebody help write it; I couldn't do two books at the same time. So I picked Paul, and he's done a very competent job.
O'Gorman: How do you feel about having someone else fleshing out your ideas?
Cussler: Oh, it doesn't bother me. He's actually making up most of his own words. I edit it.
O'Gorman: Are you tired of Dirk Pitt? Would you like to retire him?
Cussler: I think he's tired, I'm not. He's getting a little long in the tooth. But, you know, look at James Bond. He's still going; he's never aged. I've talked about maybe having a long lost son show up, but everybody from the editors to the agent nix that. And if I died tomorrow they'd get somebody to keep the Pitt series going, I'm sure.
O'Gorman: You think so?
Cussler: Oh, it's too profitable for the publisher. I can't believe they'd just drop it.
O'Gorman: How do you feel about that?
Cussler: Oh, I don't mind. The kids would get the money. Not that it would be successful, because John E. Gardner kept the James Bond series going and it never really sold well.
O'Gorman: Is there really a NUMA?
Cussler:Yes, Virginia, there really is. I was looking for the John Paul Jones ship in 1978, which I have yet to find, by the way. It's in the North Sea. There was an attorney who was one of the volunteers on board. He suggested that since I was spending money on this I really should incorporate as a not-for-profit foundation, since it was more or less a donation because we were trying to preserve maritime history. That's when we formed NUMA.
O'Gorman: When was that?
Cussler: Oh, 1979. All the trustees thought it would be great fun to call it after the one out of the book, NUMA. I disagreed, but they outvoted me.
O'Gorman: Your life and your art seem to blur a lot. Does that get a little weird?
Cussler: Oh, no, because I'm pretty common.
O'Gorman: You're telling me you're normal enough so that it doesn't bother you?
Yeah, pretty much. I wouldn't say my wife and I are reclusive, but we don't do much. We're busy, but we're not out in the social circles. Even when I go on a shipwreck and we make a big discovery, you rarely hear about it because unlike Bob Ballard (who discovered the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck), I don't stand up in front of six TV cameras.
Cussler:
O'Gorman: He's probably looking for more funding than you are, though.
Cussler: Well that's true. Of course, I gave up on the funding. I just fund it out of my book royalties.
O'Gorman: Your other hobby is collecting cars. How many do you have?
Cussler: Oh, I guess pushing 90.
O'Gorman: Where does one put 90 cars?
Cussler: In a warehouse. I've got a warehouse outside of Denver where I keep the collection. There's two fellows in front of it who have a restoration shop, so I give it to them rent free and then they maintain the collection for me. Then if I want a car restored they'll do mine as well as others.
O'Gorman: Do you get much use out of the cars?
Cussler: Not any more. I used to live there and was down to the shop about three or four times a week, but now I only see them about three or four times a year. Right now it's an investment. Rather than doing the stock market, I bought old cars. It's more fun and I know more about it. I don't know zip about the stock market.
O'Gorman: Tell me about the women in your books, because they are more than just decoration.
Cussler: That's right, no bimbos. They're all intelligent and nice looking. Women always ask me how I know so much about fashion - because I always describe what they wear. I just take it out of Vogue and the rest of the fashion magazines that my wife subscribes to.
O'Gorman: Do you have daughters?
Cussler: Yes, I have two daughters (and one son).
O'Gorman: When I heard "Atlantis Found" I assumed you have daughters, because the women are there for more than just sex.
Cussler: Well, I don't have any sex in my books. And no four-letter words, because when I started writing my kids were quite young. I thought, "Someday they're going to read these books." As a result I get many letters from schoolteachers and mothers who couldn't get their children or students to read. They start them, generally, with "Raise the Titanic" and then they say, "They've read all your books and now they're reading everything in sight."
I didn't feel it was necessary. The sex slows the action down. They never learned that in the movies.
O'Gorman: Speaking of movies, "Raise the Titanic" was made into one in 1980. Has there ever been talk about a Dirk Pitt movie?
Cussler: All the time, but I took the books off the market because they made such a mess of it ("Raise the Titanic"). I don't care that they messed up the book, but the direction was terrible, the screenwriting was abominable, even the editing was awful. So I just never sold to Hollywood again.
My agent and I laugh because all the actors from (Sylvester) Stallone to (Bruce) Willis to (Richard) Chamberlain to Wesley Snipes to Christopher Reeves, before he fell off the horse, they all want to play Dirk Pitt. In fact, Matthew McConaughey has been to the house three times. But I'm still leery. Let's say that they produce and make another mediocre nothing, a box office bomb. Well, I'm dead; they'll never sell to the movies again. So it's a risk. Look at Wilbur Smith, a great South African writer who had three terrible movies in a row made from his books and it killed him in the American market. ("Gold," "The Kingfish Caper" and "Shout at the Devil" are three of Smith's novels that have been adapted for film.) He's unknown over here now. He used to hit the bestseller list all the time, and he's still a great writer. We had to climb back after "Raise the Titanic."
O'Gorman: What about audiobooks? Do you ever listen to them?
Cussler: No, because I listen to classical stuff and chamber music when I'm out on the road. I like to relax when I'm driving. My wife took one with us when we drove from Arizona to Colorado. We listened to it for about half an hour and then finally I said, "That's it, I know how it all comes out. I know the ending. The butler did it."
O'Gorman: Okay then, what do you read?
Cussler: Cute story. Years ago I had lunch with James Michener when he was writing "Centennial." I said, "Have you read any good book lately, Jim?" He laughed and he said, "I don't read." He meant that when you're working on a book you're researching. About the only books I have time to read are the review copies or manuscripts of a first-time author. If he's done a competent job I'll give him a quote or an endorsement.
O'Gorman: What are you working on next?
Cussler: Oh, I'm working on another one with Pitt. I've got one more to do under the contract.
O'Gorman: Do you have a title?
Cussler: Not yet. In fact, on the title page in the word processor it just says "new book."
O'Gorman: Is Clive Cussler your real name?
Cussler: Yes.
O'Gorman: I assumed it was a pen name.
Cussler: Everybody thinks that. When I was born my mother liked the name because she liked a British actor whose name was Clive Brook, and my dad's name was Cussler. He came from Germany. So, it's real. And my son's name is Dirk. He was six months old when I started writing, so I just used his name for fun.
