“Humans make their own history, but not under circumstances of their choosing.” — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
In a democracy, people tend to get the kind of government they deserve. — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
My standard Nando's order is a chicken breast burger served 'medium,' which is still fairly spicy. — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
“Bastiat (1801–1850) was a strikingly clear-minded early advocate of what came to be known as liberal economics, whose central idea is that the state should get out of the way of free trade. He would be a lot more famous if he wasn’t French, since the French are highly distrustful of the whole notion of liberal economics and tend to… — John Lanchester Copy Share
“What was going on here was something Smitty had seen before: a young person’s first real farewell to the world of school and college, where even if they are rebelling and faffing about and getting in trouble, the truth is that the whole experience is about them. They think that the whole world revolves around their needs, for the good… — John Lanchester Copy Share
“It seemed too as if many of the people were on display, behaving as if they expected to be looked at, as if they were on show: so many of them seemed to be wearing costumes, not just policemen and firemen and waiters and shop assistants, but people in their going-to-work costumes, their I'm-a-mother-pushing-a-pram costumes, babies and children in outfits… — John Lanchester Copy Share
But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how to put… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
Video games are the first new artistic medium since television, but they are more different from television than television was from cinema; they are… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
'Dead peasants insurance' is a term that sounds as if it comes straight out of Monty Python. If only that were true. — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
As an outsider to and observer of the restaurant business, one of the things I most admire about it is the risks people are… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
The first ATM in Hong Kong was actually at the foot of the bank. I remember my father using it. And I find it… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
Money is like poetry because both involve learning to communicate in a compressed language that packs a lot of meaning and consequence into the… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
