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I'm a huge fan of the Navy. My father was a Naval historian, and I've been studying Naval battles forever.

I have 60 years of reading to draw upon: naval memoirs, dispatches, the Naval Chronicles, family letters.

My friend Anderson Cooper is the scion of one of America's great shipping and railroad families, the Vanderbilts.

I've been enjoying 'Life on the Mississippi' by Mark Twain that I picked up at the airport randomly. It's very witty and interesting to read about his time as a steamboat pilot.

I have always had a keen interest in defence and military history and read more on this subject than anything else.

My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.

I've bought pretty much every book ever written about the Alamo, and I talk to my friends that I've made over the past 15, 20 years. It's just a constant learning and fascinating thing for me.

When the audience first sees Cooper talking into his tape recorder at the beginning of 'Twin Peaks,' I think that's the greatest introduction to a character I've seen in my career. It tells you everything about the guy right there in a few minutes as well as bringing up a whole load of questions.

I started reading the big histories and the small histories, the memoirs and so forth. At some point, I found the diary of William E. Dodd.