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Books Chat


Michael Crichton chats about his new book and life as an author

December 12, 1999
Web posted at: 4:00 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Michael Crichton returned to the CNN.com chat room on December 10,1999, to conclude his book tour for his latest novel "Timeline." Crichton joined the chat room after appearing on CNN's TalkBack Live. He joined the chat from the CNN.com newsroom in Atlanta. The following is an edited transcript of the chat.

Chat Moderator: Welcome back , Michael Crichton!

Michael Crichton: Hi, everybody

Question from CraigHorton: I wonder with the birth of the Internet if Crichton feels that books are becoming obsolete.

Michael Crichton: The short answer is no. I think there are many places where you won't want to be taking your computer, or even your laptop, or even your electronic book. Paper really has its advantages (no batteries required to read).

Question from Saint: Which one of your novels would you have wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct if he was still alive?

Michael Crichton: Rising Sun. I'm a Mac person. I use a G4 desktop and a PowerBook 400 (the bronze one).

Question from Duquesne: Mr. Crichton, do you think that Artificial Intelligence is dangerous?

Michael Crichton: I'd rather see artificial intelligence than no intelligence. (grin) Of course, it might be. But maybe real AI will make people act better. We need something...

Question from Filmbuff: Mr. Crichton, what character from all of your books most resembles you? If any?

Michael Crichton: Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park.

Question from MTonel: The screenplay for The Lost World was nothing like the book, why?

Michael Crichton: I wasn't involved in the making of the movie, so I can't tell you any details about The Lost World.

Question from HomerJ: Why would a celebrity choose to participate in an online chat?

Michael Crichton: Why not?

Question from Ezsoft: Outside of writing and directing, what are your interests, goals? Are you interested in music?

Michael Crichton: Actually, I am now very interested in computer technology as it is used currently to make games. I think this technology is very powerful and could be used in new ways. I am doing quite a bit of work in this area now.

Question from James: Michael Crichton, what do you do to relax and clear your mind of these concepts you create so well?

Michael Crichton: I need to do something physical. Scuba diving or long hikes in wilderness settings.

Question from SisterSledge: So many of your books have been movies. Do you now write books with a vision toward having them become movies?

Michael Crichton: I really don't. I work hard to ignore the possibility of a movie, because a) there might never be one; and b) I don't want to self-censor, by deciding in advance what might or might not be possible.

During the time I was writing Jurassic Park, it was really impossible to make as a movie. But I wrote it anyway.

Question from Stevetalk: Michael why did you write Travels?

Michael Crichton: I had never written anything autobiographical, and travelling was an important part of my life. I felt as if I was kind of keeping a secret by never writing about it. Anyway, I felt unburdened in some way when it was finished.

Question from Filmbuff: Michael, growing up what were your interests?

Michael Crichton: I was a geek. I liked to go to the planetarium and to science shows and things like that. I liked books with titles like How To Shock Your Friends With Ten Thousand Volts and other sorts of nuisance tricks. When I was in high school, I played basketball, and I liked that a lot.

Question from Bizzy: Will you continue to write in the same genre, or will you branch out into anything else? How about children's books? ;-)

Michael Crichton: I've thought about children's books for some time. Don't know why I never have. But I never really know what I will do next.

Question from Spidey619: I live in Southern California. Will you be touring down here?

Michael Crichton: I already have. Sorry to miss you.

Question from Sharonka: Have you ever considered adding a little romance to your books?

Michael Crichton: I have considered it. But I guess a straightforwardly romantic story is not my thing.

Question from Jimmy: Mr. Crichton, when did you decide you wished to write? Did you ever not like writing?

Michael Crichton: I decided around the 6th grade that it was something I liked a lot. As for "ever not liking writing," I have certainly had periods in my life when I didn't want to write -- and mostly didn't. Fortunately, for the last decade or so, I have wanted to write.

Question from Jlee: What would you say to a young person who is confused about what they should do with their life?

Michael Crichton: Welcome to the club. It never gets better. You will, eventually, see that it all turns out okay in the end.

Question from Slyrich: I must say that I really love the new book Timeline, and was amazed when I read it. A job well done. Do you generally know all this stuff or you have done a lot of research? Are you generally interested in various kinds of things to have a broad view for your book?

Michael Crichton: I'm glad you liked it, thanks. The answer is, sometimes I have an interest in an area, so I already know a lot when I start. Other times, as in Timeline, I don't have any background, so my first job is to get up to speed on The Hundred Years War in France, for example. But I find research is fun for me. I enjoy it. I feel it is a privilege to be able to do what I like to do in this way.

Question from Majid: Mr. Crichton, do you title your books before or after you write them?

Michael Crichton: It varies. Andromeda Strain was a title without a book for many years. Other times, I am not sure of the title until it is time to publish, Rising Sun, for example.

Question from Indy: It seems that when books are turned into movies, the movies are highly criticized for anything in the plot that strays from the book. Have you, will you every write something just for the movies?

Michael Crichton: I'm not sure I agree that movies are criticized for straying. Often I think nobody cares, and the movie is taken on its own terms, so long as it works.

As for writing for movies, I have. I've done a number of original screenplays, starting with Westworld and finishing with, most recently, Twister.

Question from Raptor: What do you want for Christmas?

Michael Crichton: My two front teeth. (grin)

Question from Mags: Are you still an avid diver?

Michael Crichton: I still like doing it, but I don't do it as often as I used to. I've gotten a little more particular. So many places I won't dive because I've done it a lot in that location.

Question from JCHoyt: Is there a specific structure you use to go about writing, or do you just let it all flow out?

Michael Crichton: Flow out? I WISH!! No, it's a structure, and it either exists first, or it is painfully acquired in the course of working. Structure is extremely important and books don't organize themselves. It's hard work (and sometimes luck.)

Question from Saint: Which musical score from one of your movies do you feel best supports the story's themes?

Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park (John Williams) and 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith).

Question from Hey_There: Michael, amusing question, how might I be able to get a copy of your 1982 game, Amazon?

Michael Crichton: I believe it is floating around on the net somewhere. I don't have copies. I am not sure it would even run under Windows.

Question from Trinity: I just have one question, I'm curious if you start a book with the intent of writing a bestseller or just because you enjoy writing and a bestseller is a result?

Michael Crichton: Okay, complicated answer. I don't try to write a bestseller, and I don't think anybody can do that. If you try, you will make a lousy book and it will also fail. But I don't especially enjoy writing. I mean, I like it, but it is hard work. So, it is a bit like running marathons. Runners like it, but they're ambivalent about it, too. So, I write because in some way, I am compelled to do it. Often I just feel grabbed by a story and yanked into the office to start writing.

Question from DonLine: Mr. Crichton, have you ever considered going into politics and what do you think of the current presidential candidates?

Michael Crichton: I could never be a politician. For one thing, it bores me silly. For another thing, I have always said to reporters that I have done every bad thing there is to do in my life, except shoot drugs. So, my background would not be acceptable. And my three ex-wives wouldn't like it either.

Question from Jimmy: Do you ballroom, Latin or swing dance? Do you do any other type of dance?

Michael Crichton: You're just getting too personal here.

Question from Douglas: You said in Travels that you could see auras. Do you still place value in such alternative thinking?

Michael Crichton: Yes.

Question from Doc: What did you write as a med. student?

Michael Crichton: I wrote several books under the name John Lange. I wrote A Case Of Need under the name Jeffery Hudson, but it has since been reissued under my own name. And I wrote The Andromeda Strain.

Question from Duquesne: Professors at Carnegie Mellon University say that AI will advance so rapidly that people will be lucky if robots keep us around in the future. What are your thoughts on this theory? Is it preposterous or does it have some viability?

Michael Crichton: I don't think there is any question that fairly soon , within 50 years, and probably much earlier, computers will be smarter than we are. Remember, the world champion in various games is already a machine. But as for keeping us around, I'm not worried. People are very entertaining. I am sure we will amuse computers.

Question from Grommit: Will there be a movie made of Airframe?

Michael Crichton: No. When we got to the point of budgeting the script, we realized that it was just too expensive to be a practical proposition. The studio would never make its money back. Disney was willing to go ahead, but I was not. So I killed the project and re-acquired the rights. For the moment, it is a dead project.

Question from Danno: Hello, Michael. Being a man of science, does the fast approaching year 2000 open up any new books in your mind?

Michael Crichton: Timeline actually was, in a sense, a response to the year 2000 and the coming century. So I feel as if that's done. On to something else.

Question from WillowBee7: If you could meet one person from the past, who would it be and why?

Michael Crichton: Do I only get one? How unfair! I can't limit myself to only one! I want about a hundred. (grin.) Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher. Benjamin Franklin, the most dangerous spinmaster in American history.

Question from EK: What books are you reading right now?

Michael Crichton: Stewart Justman - The Psychological Mystique, James Twitchell - Lead Us Into Temptation, Casanova - My Life, and Elizabeth Wurzel, Bitch.

Question from DavidW: Do you get "frustrated" answering the same old questions all the time?

Michael Crichton: Not frustrated...But it is odd how almost everybody wants to know pretty much the same thing.

Question from Jimmy: What bands do you listen to?

Michael Crichton: I like Smash Mouth and the Dixie Chicks and lots of other stuff.

Question from Rick: Are you a spiritual person?

Michael Crichton: Yes, but it is difficult to talk about.

Question from Grommit: Who is your favorite author?

Michael Crichton: My mind just went blank. I don't think that I think that way. Somebody once asked me what my favorite food was, and I couldn't answer that either.

Question from Joe: The passage of time is always critical in your stories. Do you do that only for the stress it creates?

Michael Crichton: I honestly don't know. Certainly it is a tension-making device, but it seems to me that a ticking clock and heights are both elements that keep reappearing again and again in my books. Must be something unconscious.

Question from Hey_There: Michael, do you accredit going to Harvard with having heightened your intelligence greatly?

Michael Crichton: I certainly benefited from my time at Harvard, but I don't think that education increases anybody's intelligence. Let's face facts, most schooling lowers a student's intelligence. (grin)

Question from FoxLee: Do you ever consider going back into medicine?

Michael Crichton: No, but that's just the way I am. I tend to look forward, not backward.

Question from Douglas: Your writing seems to have evolved with time and experience. What can we expect in the future?

Michael Crichton: More evolution.

Question from Lubna: How do you think the movie Jurassic Park compared to your book?

Michael Crichton: I have a particular attitude toward movies made from my books, because I am so experienced in movies. I have directed, myself, and so I don't have foolish illusions about what the movie will be. They will be different, and often radically different. That alone can't be a criticism.

My wish for the movies is that they are a) good movies in their own right, and b) a good example of the director's work. If that happens, I'm happy.

Question from Sweet: Has writing books been your dream since you were a child? I am twelve and I wonder what it is like to be such a greatly known writer?

Michael Crichton: It was my dream, yes, or at least, one of my dreams. As for what it is like to be well known, it's pretty nice.

Question from Da: Why did you choose 14th Century France in Timeline?

Michael Crichton: I wanted a period of danger and warfare, which the Hundred Years War certainly represented. I also wanted to write about a period where knights were still active, so I could tell something about the reality behind those suits of armor. And I was also drawn to the 14th century because it was the time when so many modern institutions were laid down. Like the nation-state, for example.

We take it for granted that a map of the world is carved up into autonomous nations. But the world was not always that way. It came into being in the 14th century. For instance, during the war, England was already a nation, but France still was not. France was a bunch of warring local feudal lords.

I believe, in fact, that the medieval period is much more important than the Renaissance. Everybody talks about the renaissance, but it was sort of an outcome of the heavy lifting done by the medieval people who came before.

Question from HanHsiang: What dreams have you yet to realize?

Michael Crichton: So many things. I'd like to do enough yoga that I could touch my toes. I'd like to direct another movie. I'd like to have more children. I'd like to be able to say that I have mastered myself. I haven't.

Question from Jlee: How has money changed you?

Michael Crichton: It's gotten me a lot more friends.

Question from Jbeckhamlat: You read a great deal before writing. Do you interview historians as a reporter would to get a feel for the subject?

Michael Crichton: No. I actually visited historical archaeologists, since that was what I was writing about. But I just wanted to see what they were like, what they talked about, what their offices were like, that sort of thing. I didn't want information from them in the ordinary sense of the word.

Question from Mirage2k: Why was the title Eaters Of The Dead changed to The 13th Warrior for the film version?

Michael Crichton: I changed it because in everyday life, I was getting a tremendously negative reaction to the title. People were saying, "What're you working on?" And I would say, "Eaters of the Dead," and they would say, "I'll skip that one." Or "Eeew!" Or something equally direct.

The other thing was that people couldn't remember the title. "What is it? The People Eaters?" That meant to me that there was a problem with the title. So we changed it.

Question from Mags: How involved are you with the weekly production of ER?

Michael Crichton: I'm not involved at all, any more. I'm just an enthusiastic audience member.

Question from Joe: Do you have children?

Michael Crichton: Yes, a daughter 10.

Question from Tyler: Mr. Crichton, Which of the other best selling authors on the market do you enjoy and/or respect the most?

Michael Crichton: I don't read much fiction of any sort. Of the usual list of suspects, I only read Stephen King on a regular basis.

Question from The_PYX: < > Will Timeline have a sequel?

Michael Crichton: No.

Question from Grantedwards: Does your creativity shake you at inopportune times?

Michael Crichton: Yes, sometimes. Every so often I feel I want to go back to the office after dinner, and my wife makes a face, but I go. But nothing really dramatic, you know.

Question from Jimmy: Do you write on computer, by hand, on a typewriter?

Michael Crichton: I write on computer. My father was a journalist and he believed nobody should write by hand. He sent all his kids to learn typing when they were 10. So, I have typed ever since 5th grade. I couldn't possibly write longhand. It would be so SLOW. (I am a fast typist.)

Question from Kenny: I read a book, Second Sight by Judith Orloff, which suggested that you worked with remote viewing. Can you comment on your use of the intuitive process, and whether remote viewing is part of it?

Michael Crichton: I don't know what Judith said. But I certainly think intuition is important in writing. But, the thing is, when you are "making things up" you are never certain whether you are just inventing, or whether you are drawing on some other source, knowledge that you already had but have forgotten, and so on. So...I don't know what happens when I write.

Question from Baxter: Where did you get the idea for the illness in the Andromeda Strain?

Michael Crichton: Ever see the blood in a cadaver that you have to dissect as a first year medical student? It's caked solid.

Question from Melonhead: Are you happy with the treatment with which Hollywood has handled your books, in general?

Michael Crichton: In general, I feel I have been very lucky.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for chatting with us!

Michael Crichton: Thank you all for coming in to join us. It's been fun talking to all of you. Your questions are more interesting than most of the reporters' questions I get. (grin) Bye for now.

Chat Moderator: Thank you, Michael Crichton, for joining us again!


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