Copyright 2003 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
NBC News Transcripts

SHOW: Today (7:00 AM ET) - NBC

June 9, 2003 Monday

LENGTH: 1418 words

HEADLINE: Author Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code" talks about the success
of his book and the research he did in order to write it

ANCHORS: MATT LAUER

BODY:
MATT LAUER, co-host:

Summer is a time for many to slow down a little bit and catch up on
some good reading, and each year there is a runaway hit. This
year, "The Da Vinci Code," written by Dan Brown, is poised to take the
summer by storm. It's sitting at the number one spot on the New York
Times best seller list.

Dan, good morning. Nice to see you.

Mr. DAN BROWN ("The Da Vinci Code"): Nice to be here.

LAUER: Let me be more specific, OK? It's not only number one on the New
York Times best seller list, it is number one on every best seller list
in the country right now.

Mr. BROWN: That is true.

LAUER: It's a million copies in print, something like that. Ho-hum for
you, or--or a bit shocking?

Mr. BROWN: No, entirely shocking. I mean, I worked very hard on this
book, and I'm--I'm not surprised that people are enjoying it. I--I
really didn't expect that this many people would be enjoying it quite
this much.

LAUER: You--you've written before, and you've been successful, but this
is a--this is a whole different category here.

Mr. BROWN: You know, yes, and this--I think it's because the book deals
with themes that--that really cut across a huge portion of the
population: ancient secret societies, mysterious locations in Europe
and, of course, in this case, the codes and the paintings of da Vinci.

LAUER: You bring back a--a main character in this book that was
in "Angels and Demons"...

Mr. BROWN: Yes.

LAUER: ...another book of yours. A Harvard professor...

Mr. BROWN: yes.

LAUER: ...Robert Langdon. Tell me a little bit about him.

Mr. BROWN: He is a professor of religious symbology or iconography.

LAUER: Let me stop you there.

Mr. BROWN: All right.

LAUER: Because normally if you say to somebody, 'Oh, and the main
character's a professor of religious symbology and iconology,' they're
going to go, 'Check, please.'

Mr. BROWN: Right.

LAUER: And yet you manage...

Mr. BROWN: Fair enough.

LAUER: ...to make this guy interesting.

Mr. BROWN: A symbologist, as the name implies, is somebody who
understands symbols. He's somebody who might be able to look at the,
for example, the eye inside the triangle on the back of the dollar
bill. He might be able to know where that came from, what it means, its
historical significance. And I worked very hard to make all of this
sort of arcane information accessible and exciting.

LAUER: My job here is to kind of make this simple in a six-minute
segment here. So basically, and--and don't shoot me for this, but
basically the story is the search for the holy Grail and some clues
disguised in da Vinci's paintings.

Mr. BROWN: Yes.

LAUER: Tell me more about that without giving anything away.

Mr. BROWN: Well, this is going to be tricky, but the most important
fact is that the holy Grail is not what people think it is. That is--
that is part of the theme of the book. The holy Grail is not a cup; it
is something far more powerful. And at the beginning of the book this
professor is so summoned to the Louvre to look at some symbols that are
found around the murdered curator. These symbols lead to the paintings
of Leonardo da Vinci, which in turn lead to a great historical secret.
And, of course, in the process, this professor becomes a hunted man.

LAUER: How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that
actually occurred? I know you did a lot of research for the book.

Mr. BROWN: Absolutely all of it. Obviously, there are--Robert Langdon
is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret
societies, all of that is historical fact.

LAUER: So what'd you do? You traveled the world, you know, running into
museums and--and...

Mr. BROWN: Essentially, yeah.

LAUER: ...interviewing a lot of historians.

Mr. BROWN: My--well, I'm very fortunate. I married an art historian
who, you know, with whom I travel, and we have a great time. We spend a
lot...

LAUER: Her name's Blythe, by the way. You dedicate the book to her.

Mr. BROWN: Yes.

LAUER: Was she the inspiration?

Mr. BROWN: In many ways, yes. She--she is an enormous da Vinci fanatic
and really got me extremely interested in this topic. And I--I
approached it with some skepticism and became a believer the more time
we spent in Europe in these museums. She's a great editor.

LAUER: But the lightbulb is going on here. Now you take your wife to
Europe, to Paris and places like this, and yet you get to call it
research and write it all off.

Mr. BROWN: Well, as far as my accountant knows, it's entirely research.

LAUER: It's all through the book.

Mr. BROWN: That's right.

LAUER: How much--how much of a difficulty was there, Dan, in kind of
drawing the line between making this overly heavy with the history yet
maintaining this thriller aspect?

Mr. BROWN: Yes, that's an important point. I--I very liberally used my
delete key. For every single page in "The Da Vinci Code" that a reader
reads, there are 10 pages that end up in my trash can. This is above
all a thriller. And I tried to use just that information that really
served the story and really helped move the plot along.

LAUER: You--you do something else here is that you--you ask the reader
to--to challenge certain long-held beliefs or truths about religion.

Mr. BROWN: Yes.

LAUER: ...Christianity. That can be a mine field for an author. And
people take that very seriously.

Mr. BROWN: Yes.

LAUER: Were you worried about that at all?

Mr. BROWN: Yeah, I was very curious when the book came out how it would
be received. And--and I'm happy to say there was just an instant tidal
wave of good will and enthusiasm for this book. There were a handful of
people for whom it was a little bit shocking, but the vast majority
loved it.

LAUER: Le--let me bring up something in Newsweek magazine.

Mr. BROWN: Oh, yeah.

LAUER: Oh, yeah. An author named Lewis Perdue claims that your book,
and I think the words he used, "just phenomenally similar" to a book
that he had written several years ago called, "Daughter of God." What's
your response--I mean, basically, he's--he's accusing you of plagiarism.

Mr. BROWN: Yes. Well, I obviously was not amused. Apparently, this
happens all the time to best-selling authors. And when the--when "Da
Vinci Code" debuted at number one, I actually got a lot of calls from
best-selling authors, calls with congratulations, and also of warnings
saying, 'Well, get ready, because there are going to be people that
you've never heard of coming out of the woodwork sort of wanting to
ride on the coattails.' And all I can really tell you about Mr. Pu--
I've never heard of him, I've never heard of his work, and you know.

LAUER: So it's like one of these prob--nice problem for a best-selling
author to have.

Mr. BROWN: Yeah, it's just one of these dubious badges of honor that
you wear once you hit the best seller list, I guess.

LAUER: Let me read you what the New York Times review of the book said,
quote, "Gleefully erudite novel. Mr. Brown takes the format he's been
developing through three earlier novels and fine-tunes it to
blockbuster proportion--or perfection," excuse me. That's a pretty good
endorsement.

Mr. BROWN: Very, very nice. That was a--a wonderful first review to
read.

LAUER: How--how does this impact the--your next steps in your career? I
mean, once you get these kind of reviews, these kind of sales, this
kind of exposure, how much pressure do you find on your next project?
And what is the next project?

Mr. BROWN: Well, the next project is another Robert Langdon thriller.
This professor of symbology will be exploring another secret
brotherhood. I can't say too much about it. But, obviously, the
positive response, it's wonderful. It changes your life dramatically.
I'm--I'm sitting on the TODAY show, talking to Matt Lauer. That's--
that's a new experience. The same time, I'm a writer. I spend my life
essentially alone at a computer. That doesn't change. I have the same
challenges every day.

LAUER: Well, congratulations on that--on the talk about the book and--
and certainly on the sales and--and all the reviews. And being number
one on all those lists has to feel awfully good.

Mr. BROWN: It's terrific.

LAUER: Dan Brown...

Mr. BROWN: Thank you.

LAUER: ...good to have you here.

If you'd like to read an excerpt from "The Da Vinci Code," you can go
to our Web site at today.msnbc.com. And we're back after these messages
and a look at your local news and weather.