You are in the job market. Either you are not working and actively applying for jobs, your working but for whatever reason the writing is on the wall or you got a call from a pro-active recruiter. 

You start chatting about the general details of the job and then the question comes up, what are you looking to make....

You try to give an answer like negotiable, market rate or "we can come to an agreement" but the conversation is stalled without an actual data point.

(You do not want someone to get into the interview process without knowing what they are looking to make because you do not want to get to the offer stage and all parties are $20,000 off. Big Waste of time for the recruiter, the candidate and the client) 

The recruiter is hesitant to provide you with the range of the position because they are concerned you will simply repeat whatever the range is (either high or low) to get into the interview process and change once they want to make an offer. 

One reason that is easy to understand about not wanting to discuss salary early on in the process is that you are afraid that if your request is too high, you will scare them off but you are just as likely to scare off recruiters with a request that is too low. 14 years of consistent experience and your looking for the same salary as an entry level person in the field? 

With all of this being said, prior to being in the job search (either active or passive) you must take the time to do the salary research.

Do online research, talk to people in your field but be able to answer with confidence. 

A few places to research salary data include glassdoor.com, salary.com and asking connections in your field. 

Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com