There were exceptions, a couple of families that just plain didn't want to even think about it, although forty years had passed but mostly the people were very interested in talking about it.

Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.

Brilliantly lit from stem to stern, she looked like a sagging birthday cake.

Events alone rarely provide much guide to the future.

It's a funny thing, but today the Titanic is probably much more - that is people are much more aware of it than they were in 1954, when I was doing my research.

I look for something that is highly unusual, involving ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations.

The ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.

I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

Someone once told me the one thread that runs through them all is a premium on personal courage - not intellectual courage, but just plain physical courage.

It is cynicism, and not idealism, that is generally the mark of youthful immaturity, or rather it is the cynic who is generally the most foolish romantic.

We keep so busy talking we are so keen to act that we forget that in the heart lies all we need untapped, intact.

I'm sure the next time Piers Morgan asks me to host his show again I will ask President Obama to be my guest.

If you get up on stage and brag, I don't think that's very brave. It's braver to get up and take your clothes off. And I do that every night.

Of course, the surest way to free yourself from an existential crisis is through comedy.

I am a dork in disguise; I love doing stupid stuff.

I begin each book with a challenge to myself.

I think it's like the '60s - we're going to see another revolution in film where these new filmmakers stand up and take ownership of what film is and mould it into what they want.

If you start thinking about stats it can get too complicated and you just have to go out there and play your game.

The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate.