Nathaniel Philbrick

Whatever you read, there's no better place to read than the cockpit or the berth of a boat. It's kind of like being in a womb.

In all natural disasters through time, man needs to attach meaning to tragedy, no matter how random and inexplicable the event is.

As an author of narrative history, I read a lot of history books.

I'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.

Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.