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I've always looked upon research as an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. But the other side of the coin is one must not be so caught up in it that one never gets the book written.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

The thing about research is that there's no end. You constantly have this fear that an expert who knows more than you will call you out on some detail in your book.

The notion of a writer sitting in a library doing research isn't what I want. The research I love doing isn't found in a book. It's what it feels like to rappel down the side of a building; to train with a SWAT team; to hold a human brain in your hands; or to dive for pirate treasure. Those are things I've done to research my stories.

Research is the historical novelist's map, constraint, and purest energy.

I love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment of starting to write the story.

When I began, I thought that the way one should work was to do all the research and then write the book.

The book is there for inspiration and as a foundation, the fundamentals on which to build.

I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.