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.

I don't think I was a good model. I think I was born to emote and act. I would walk down the ramp and smile and they used to say, 'Give us a blank look.' It was really difficult not to smile.

There's a whole bunch of unfinished stuff. Then I've got books of lyrics. I find it frustrating to finish a song and not be able to record it... so I don't write a million songs.

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.