The past always seems better when you look back on it than it did at the time. And the present never looks as good as it will in the future.

Without sharks, you take away the apex predator of the ocean, and you destroy the entire food chain

Since writing JAWS, I've been lucky enough to do close to forty television shows about wildlife in the oceans, and yes, I have been attacked by sea creatures once in a while.

I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.

He would have lied to himself as facilely as an alcoholic lies to himself to justify the 10 a.m. tumbler of vodka : it may be early here, but in Baghdad it's almost evening.

I know now that the mythic monster I created was largely a fiction.

There's nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That's their instinct. But this fish doesn't run from anything. He doesn't fear.