Erik Larson

I was never concretely aware of the extent of anti-Semitism in the United States and in the upper levels of the State Department.

We, of course, have the power of hindsight in our arsenal, but people living in Berlin in that era didn't. What would that have been like as this darkness fell over Germany?

I pride myself on having a journalistic remove.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.

I was disinclined to have the status of a writer.

I guess I just don't like being physically in front of people I don't know very well, because I expect to be 'seen through,' or, even worse, instantly hated.