I've always been interested in rootedness - mainly, I suppose, because I had very little experience of it. — John Lanchester Always Copy Share Image
“Arabella was good at making life seem easy, except when she suddenly and dramatically wasn't.” — John Lanchester Ease Copy Share Image
Dad was a very, very principled man, and he hated any kind of story where the baddies get away with it. — John Lanchester Dad Copy Share Image
We wouldn't care so much what people thought of us if we knew how seldom they did. — John Lanchester Care Copy Share Image
In the U.S., it is a crime to lie to a federal agent, and it's often this that sends people to jail… — John Lanchester Jail Copy Share Image
There's an awful lot of us who don't quite speak finance, speak money. — John Lanchester Finance Copy Share Image
Economics as a discipline has in effect become the study of capitalism. The two are taken as the same subject. — John Lanchester Capitalism Copy Share Image
By the time I was three years old, I'd lived at 10 different addresses in six different countries. — John Lanchester Different countries Copy Share Image
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 Boxes Copy Share Image
I think smartphones are one of humanity's most remarkable creations: computers are amazing enough, but a supercomputer you can carry in your… — John Lanchester Amazing Copy Share Image
One of the things that happens to you if you write about restaurants - one of the reasons restaurant critics are the… — John Lanchester Business Copy Share Image
“You could not spend your entire span of life in thrall to the code of stuff. There was no code of stuff.… — John Lanchester Belongings Copy Share Image
People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their… — John Lanchester Areas Copy Share Image
Celebrity farmer. Now there's a phrase that should be an oxymoron. There are farmers on both sides of my family, and I… — John Lanchester Celebrity Copy Share Image
“In Shahid's view, the best way through difficult times, as through life in general, was just to go along with things. It… — John Lanchester Difficult time Copy Share Image
The 'stuff' in novels touches on every aspect of the world and people's lives. That's what makes it so remarkable just how… — John Lanchester Books Copy Share Image
It doesn't thrill me to bits that the state has to use the tools of electronic surveillance to keep us safe, but… — John Lanchester Common good 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… — John Lanchester Capitalism Copy Share Image
“No, Roger had not seen the funny side. But there had been a moment when, after looking at his watch, he had… — John Lanchester Assembly Copy Share Image
“It's always the next pay raise, the next purchase, the next place you move to or go on holiday which will make… — John Lanchester Credit crunch Copy Share Image
When I first travelled to New York in 1982 on a summer holiday as a student, I remember thinking how exciting it… — John Lanchester Dangerous Copy Share Image
“And now here was Arabella, making him feel worse. Maybe that was what she always did; maybe she always made him feel… — John Lanchester Marriage Copy Share Image
“The white policeman was a man who gave an impression of heaviness. It wasn't that he was fat, but he sagged as… — John Lanchester Burdens Copy Share Image
Hospitality is central to the restaurant business, yet it's a hard idea to define precisely. Mostly, it involves being nice to people… — John Lanchester Business Copy Share Image
Why should the idea of Western liberal democracy automatically imply unregulated free-market capitalism? — John Lanchester Capitalism Copy Share Image
Cheap money feels like the most natural thing in the world - if you don't think about why it's so cheap. — John Lanchester Cheap Copy Share Image
Tapas is one of the world's most civilised drinking and eating traditions. — John Lanchester Drinking Copy Share Image
“As Confucius says, under some circumstances murder can be forgiven; but unreasonableness never is.” — John Lanchester Confucius Copy Share Image
Security is a complicated idea and one with an immense potential to trap us - that was one lesson I learnt from… — John Lanchester Complicated Copy Share Image
Photography brought a lot to painting because it forced artists to think about what painting could do that photography couldn't. — John Lanchester Art 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 Dead Copy Share Image
The City is, in terms of its basic functioning, a far-off country of which we know little. — John Lanchester Business Copy Share Image
The economics of setting up a new restaurant are scary in good times and terrifying in bad ones. — John Lanchester Bad Copy Share Image
My standard Nando's order is a chicken breast burger served 'medium,' which is still fairly spicy. — John Lanchester Burger Copy Share Image
The early-'80s recession was good for good restaurants, not least because it put bad ones out of business. — John Lanchester Bad Copy Share Image
But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how… — John Lanchester Gone Copy Share Image
I do believe in that thing about the reading audience being very important to the formation of the novel at its birth. — John Lanchester Audience Copy Share Image
A novel usually begins, in my experience, with a thought or image that won't leave me alone. — John Lanchester Alone Copy Share Image
We should all know our family's story, all the more so if nobody tells it to us directly and we have to… — John Lanchester Family Copy Share Image
I have a horror of going down dead ends, which you can easily do with a novel, spending months on it and… — John Lanchester Back Copy Share Image
