Top 30 Clive Cussler Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Time is a thief. It steals our memory, our hopes, and our strength, leaving only the sense there’s never enough of it.”

— Clive Cussler

2. “When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt.”

— Clive Cussler

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3. “To create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability.”

— Clive Cussler

4. “To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They’re out there, and they’re whispering.”

— Clive Cussler

5. “My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.”

— Clive Cussler

6. “They who await no gifts from chance, conquer fate.”

— Clive Cussler

7. “A man accepts the thankless burden of responsibility. We women do not. To us, life is a game we play one day at a time.”

— Clive Cussler

8. “Great escape read, yet always come back again and again.”

— Clive Cussler

9. “We’re not lost,” he said in a cheery tone. “We’re just locationally deficient and directionally challenged at the moment.”

— Clive Cussler

10. “When power is up for grabs,” Pitt said, “the first casualty is often liberty.”

— Clive Cussler

11. “In 1892, mine owner L. L. Nunn had hired the electrical wizard Nikola Tesla to build the world’s first alternating-current power.”

— Clive Cussler

12. “I must say one thing about southern down-home brewed coffee with chicory. If you have worms, you’ll never have them again.”

— Clive Cussler

13. “Hold on,′ he shouted to the woman, realizing even as he spoke that she wasn’t holding anything at all, but guessing that ‘hang in there’ would have had a terrible ring to it.”

— Clive Cussler

14. “Now, he thought, a satanic grin on his lips, I’ll show you an Immelmann. He threw the aircraft into a half loop and then snapped it over in a half roll, heading on a direct course toward the helicopter. “Write your will, sucker!” he shouted, his voice drowned out by the rush of wind and the roar of the engine’s exhaust. “Here comes the Red Baron.”

— Clive Cussler

15. “Sometimes my plot lines are so convoluted, I get calls from friends at 3 am saying; you SOB, you’ll never pull this one off.”

— Clive Cussler

16. “She was a Privately funded spy ship owned by the corporation and headed by Juan Cabtillo. The Oregon was his brain child and his one true love.”

— Clive Cussler

17. “A grief-stricken man is driven to defy the gods.”

— Clive Cussler

18. “Joe had the distinct impression they were getting in deeper than they expected with each turn, almost as if they’d hooked a small fish that had been eaten by a larger fish and was being chased by a giant shark.”

— Clive Cussler

19. “He opened the door, and his smile faded as his eyes went to the DUNKIN’ DONUTS emblazoned on the flat cardboard box in Paul’s hands. Perlmutter recoiled like a vampire being offered garlic, and would have fled into the house if Trout had not lifted the box’s lid.”

— Clive Cussler

20. “Not to worry,” said Giordino with humorous detachment. “If the inscriptions prove ancient, they’re probably nothing but a book of ancient recipes.” “Recipes for what?” inquired Helm. “Goat,” said Giordino moodily. “A thousand and one ways to serve goat.”

— Clive Cussler

21. “Take away the clothes of the greatest living man, his father once told him, and you behold a very embarrassed, naked and defenseless animal.”

— Clive Cussler

22. “Don’t give up on Jim Sandecker,” said Gunn. “He may have been blocked by the White House in securing the Roosevelt, but I’ll bet you a dinner with soft lights and music that he’ll come up with a replacement.” “You’re on,” she said, smiling thinly. “That’s a bed I’ll gladly lose.” He looked up curiously. “I beg your pardon?” “A Freudian slip.” She laughed tiredly. “I meant ’bet.”

— Clive Cussler

23. “A season with the herd and you’ll be riding like an arat,” Noyon said, referring to the local horsemen. “A season in that saddle and I’d be ready for traction,” Giordino grumbled.”

— Clive Cussler

24. “The captain moniker derived from a tired blue hat he wore on his head. It was the classic captain’s hat favored by rich yachtsmen, sporting crossed gold anchors on its prow. Dahlgren’s hat, however, looked like it had been run over by an M-1 tank.”

— Clive Cussler

25. “We’ve been through all this a thousand times. I won’t subject myself to the indignities of pregnancy. I won’t swish crap-laden diapers around in a toilet bowl ten times a day. Let someone else populate the earth. I’m not about to split off my soul, like some damned amoeba.”

— Clive Cussler

26. “Hitting the first molecules of the upper atmosphere created friction that merely warmed the rod. The lower it fell, the more the heat built, until the entire length of the rod glowed red then yellow, and, finally, a brilliant white.”

— Clive Cussler

27. “Josh Thomas was sitting in Egan’s study, reading a chemical analysis journal, when he froze in fright. The rug in the center of the room suddenly rose from the floor as if a ghost were inside and then flew aside. A trapdoor beneath swung open and Pitt’s head popped up like a jack-in-the-box. “Sorry to intrude,” said Pitt with a cheery smile. “But I just happened to be passing by.”

— Clive Cussler

28. “Yes, I am aware of the enticements required to obtain them,” Kang replied with distaste. “I believe the Russians could teach the West a thing or two about capitalistic extortion.”

— Clive Cussler

29. “Youth and vigor are no match for age and treachery.”

— Clive Cussler

30. “Yes, Istanbul does live up to its nickname as the ‘Queen of Cities.’ Born to the Greeks, raised by the Romans, and matured under the Ottomans.”

— Clive Cussler

31. “Give me ambiguity or give me something else.”

— Clive Cussler

32. “A man does not run among thorns for no reason; either he is chasing a snake or a snake is chasing him.”

— Clive Cussler

33. “Reminds me of that urban legend about hearing voices in the white noise of a television tuned to a station that’s off the air.”

— Clive Cussler

34. “Life is as you yourself make it.”

— Clive Cussler