Writers and journalists tend to be simplistic about politics when, like all other areas of life, it's more complicated. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Writers of fiction should stick to writing, not pop up on panel shows or as a talking head. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
I write as well as I can. I'm a journalist at heart, so it's the story that matters. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
I've always just wanted to earn my living by writing. The best thing is to go into my study in the morning… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
It is perfectly legitimate to write novels which are essentially prose poems, but in the end, I think, a novel is like… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Having the urge to write a novel, especially if you've yet to be published, is like having a medical condition impossible to… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
I like to take people you wouldn't really think people would write novels about: an aqueduct engineer, a code-breaker, a hedge-fund manager.… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Writing a novel - unlike operating a piece of heavy machinery, say, or cooking a chicken - is not a skill that… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
My greatest regret as a writer is that I've never been able to include as many jokes as I'd like. — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
One gains a double benefit in writing about the past, conjuring up how things might have been, and at the same time… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
Don't try to write too much in a single session. One thousand words a day is quite enough. Stop after about four… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
I've always just wanted to earn my living by writing. The best thing is to go into my study in the morning… — Robert Harris Copy Share Image
“Men mistook measurement for understanding. And they always had to put themselves at the center of everything. That was their greatest conceit. The earth… — Robert Harris Copy Share
“He felt more human with his boots on. A man can face the world with something on his feet.” — Robert Harris Copy Share
Cicero most reminds me of Harold Wilson. Both men knew how to keep the show on the road. — Robert Harris Copy Share
“To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed ... there is nothing… — Robert Harris Copy Share
“Nature has granted man no better gift than the shortness of life. The senses grow dull, the limbs are numb, sight, bearing, gait, even… — Robert Harris Copy Share
“A crock of shit,” Rick had called it. But actually this was worse. Shit, to quote Gore Vidal, has its own integrity. This was… — Robert Harris Copy Share
“... unfortunately, freedom alone is not enough, by far. If there is a shortage of bread, a shortage of butter and fats, a shortage… — Robert Harris Copy Share
It is perseverance, and not genius that takes a man to the top. Rome is full of unrecognized geniuses. Only perseverance enables you to… — Robert Harris Copy Share
“No one can really claim to know politics properly until he has stayed up all night writing a speech for delivery the following day.… — Robert Harris Copy Share
Does a name stick because it suits a man or does the man, unconsciously, evolve into his name? — Robert Harris Copy Share
“He glanced around the reading room and closed his eyes, trying to keep hold of the past for a minute longer, a fattening and… — Robert Harris Copy Share
The natural impulse of men is to follow and whoever has the strongest sense of purpose will always dominate. — Robert Harris Copy Share
