Lee Child: I was in San Francisco, so figured I'd go look at the Tenderloin part of town, which is rough.
Diane Burko: Then there was my three-hour, breathtaking flight from the south of Iceland, Hofn over Jokolskarlon, Vatnajokull glacier, Askjar and onto Myvtn in the north in 2002.
Child: The truth is, people aren't necessarily looking for the lowest common denominator.
Burko: Correct. Ultimately, the painting takes over.
Child: Do you enjoy much TV these days?
Burko: Then the projector is turned off.
Child: So I was faced with finding another way to make a living.
Burko: That process entails my discarding a majority of them.
Child: Only we readers know different.
Burko: What I value most is the concept of wonder.
Child: And the results are obvious to see. If everybody else is doing it, I won't.
Burko: Their records go back to the 19th century.
Child: I'd start all the way back with The Odyssey and work forward through the chivalric sagas of the Middle Ages—Beowulf, Gawain and the Robin Hood myths.
Burko: In the seventies, my sources were National Geographic, calendars, Arizona Highway magazines.
Child: You live and learn.