British - Novelist | March 7, 1957 -
It's when you've stopped writing and are doing other things, especially when you're asleep, that the real work is done.
Robert Harris
WorkWritingDoingYouDoneReal
First comes an idea. Then, characters begin to evolve out of the landscape of that idea. And then, finally, characters dominate: plot is simply a function of what these people might do or be. Everything has to flow from their personalities; otherwise it will not be emotionally engaging, or plausible.
PeopleLandscapeFlowWillFirst
My greatest regret as a writer is that I've never been able to include as many jokes as I'd like.
RegretNeverJokesGreatestBeen
One gains a double benefit in writing about the past, conjuring up how things might have been, and at the same time acquiring a different perspective on the present.
TimePerspectivePastWritingDouble
Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond price.
DoingLuxuryLongI CanPriceWrite
I think that whenever a nation feels itself to be at is zenith, it starts to feel a creeping sense of anxiety.
ThinkFeelAnxietyNationSense
History is what we bring to it, not just the events themselves, but how we interpret those events.
HistoryEventsBringJustInterpret
The financial world is at the cutting edge of high technology.
TechnologyWorldFinancialEdgeHigh
I write as well as I can. I'm a journalist at heart, so it's the story that matters.
HeartStoryI CanMattersWrite
I used to love politics. I can't say I do any more. All the fun has gone out of it. Each side is engaged in this trench warfare of managerialism. They're all too scared to say anything that might make them appear something other than completely bland.
LovePoliticsFunSayMoreAnything
Everyone thinks politics will just go on the way it is. I don't agree.
PoliticsGoWillWayEveryoneAgree
In a way I'm almost more rueful about the notion of having a non-ideological Labour party than I am about the personality of Tony Blair.
PersonalityI AmPartyWayMore
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