John Lanchester

Sometimes, the only way of doing something is to do it.

— John Lanchester

Some things get clearer as you look back on them.

— John Lanchester

The truth is, it is hard to know where ideas come from.

— John Lanchester

Fact doesn't have to be plausible; it just has to be fact.

— John Lanchester

“It's not the fault of ghosts that we are so frightened of them.”

— John Lanchester

“of seatbelts as an opportunity to take up drunk-driving.”

— John Lanchester

“It’s as if people used the invention”

— John Lanchester

The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.

— John Lanchester

Most people find they have to worry about money; if you don't ever, then in some fundamental way, you are cut off…

— John Lanchester

“The artist says to the cosmos: All I ask is infinite love-is that so very wrong? And the cosmos doesn't even bother…

— John Lanchester

Is it OK to admit to being slightly obsessed with the TV programme 'Great British Menu?'

— John Lanchester

My mum had this amazing ability to deflect things, and from an early age, I knew what I was not supposed to…

— John Lanchester

My mother was very proud of being Irish and being a Gunnigan in a straightforward way.

— John Lanchester

'Whoops!' was a spin-off from 'Capital.' I had the research and wanted to place it somewhere.

— John Lanchester

“He looked as if he he subsisted exclusively on carbohydrates and ill feeling.”

— John Lanchester

“Arabella was good at making life seem easy, except when she suddenly and dramatically wasn't.”

— John Lanchester

“Although he too was heading to work, Shahid was glad he wasn't dragging himself off to some office job. Shahid's view: anybody…

— John Lanchester

A preoccupation with money and, especially, with what money meant was, in our family, an inherited thing. My father's father, Jack, who…

— John Lanchester

I have sane friends, solvent friends, foodie friends, and friends who can take time off in the week, but I don't know…

— John Lanchester

The deconstructed, postmodern pizza has been with us for ages, and the fact is that pretty much every ingredient in the world…

— John Lanchester

I grew up mainly in the Far East, where my father worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which was then…

— John Lanchester

I think the Internet was invented specifically to stop people finishing their books. And it does quite a good job. I don't…

— John Lanchester

One of the main reasons that the landscape of financial stuff in America is different is that gambling is illegal there. So…

— John Lanchester

The slogans of globalisation are 'Get on your bike' and 'The world is flat.' People who want to get on have to…

— John Lanchester

Somebody told me ... that he overheard a banker's wife saying her husband was working for free this year-this was 2009. What…

— John Lanchester

It has been a masterful fight-back by the big banks. We the paying public can't do anything much except admit defeat and…

— John Lanchester

It can be a way of knowledge, a path, an inspiration, a Tao, an ordering, a memory, a fantasy, a seduction, a…

— John Lanchester

“In all memory there is a degree of fallenness; we are all exiles from our own pasts, just as, on looking up…

— John Lanchester

“All the Kamals were fluent in irritation. They loved each other but were almost always annoyed by each other, in ways that…

— John Lanchester

“He had a simple maxim for all competitive or adversarial situations: work out what the other party least wants you to do,…

— John Lanchester

“On the opposite wall was a Damien Hirst spot painting, bought by Arabella after a decent bonus season. Roger's considered view of…

— John Lanchester

It would be too glib, not a hundred per cent true, to say that my father's career as a banker was what…

— John Lanchester

“It seemed too as if many of the people were on display, behaving as if they expected to be looked at, as…

— John Lanchester

“We fight for autonomy over so many areas of our lives - for decency and democracy and freedom, for suffrage, for the…

— John Lanchester

“What was going on here was something Smitty had seen before: a young person’s first real farewell to the world of school…

— John Lanchester

“But the thing which had made him fall for her, fall properly, was the way she seemed so calm and so quiet…

— John Lanchester

“The idea of luxury, even the word "luxury," was important to Arabella. Luxury meant something that was by definition overpriced, but was…

— John Lanchester

“That was the main thing wrong with Mrs. Kamal. She spent such an extraordinary amount of mental energy feeling irritated that it…

— John Lanchester

“Mere adequacy is never adequate.”

— John Lanchester

I've always been interested in rootedness - mainly, I suppose, because I had very little experience of it.

— John Lanchester