Obviously you can stash money under your mattress, cut down on hazelnut lattes, but in terms of the larger economic frame of… — John Lanchester Frame Copy Share Image
Often, in horror films, the single most effective device for building a sense of scariness is the soundtrack: the clanking of chains,… — John Lanchester Building Copy Share Image
'Fine dining.' I'd love to know who coined the term and whether they meant it to be as offputting as it is.… — John Lanchester Customer Copy Share Image
In other words, RBS had its origins in a failed speculation, a bail-out, and a financial crash so big it helped destroy… — John Lanchester Bail Copy Share Image
I'd like to pretend to be all Olympian and above it, as if this is a phenomenon I'm observing from a great… — John Lanchester Behavior Copy Share Image
In my view, a review should be like talking to a friend who's just asked you, 'What was it like?' You're giving… — John Lanchester Experience 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;… — John Lanchester Art Copy Share Image
Most British tapas bars aren't bars at all. They're restaurants that specialise in tapas. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a bit… — John Lanchester British Copy Share Image
I don't think quantitative easing is deliberately misleading, but I do think it's suspiciously bland and reassuring. It doesn't sound like anything… — John Lanchester Anything Copy Share Image
“Any flights would be taken business class, since Roger thought that the whole point of having money, if it had to be… — John Lanchester Bits Copy Share Image
I love London in the rare parts of the year when it's quiet, and no time is more reliably quiet than the… — John Lanchester Christmas Copy Share Image
“It's not the fault of ghosts that we are so frightened of them.” — John Lanchester Fault Copy Share Image
I love short stories, but I've never had the impulse to write one. Same for ghost stories. — John Lanchester Ghost Copy Share Image
It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving. — John Lanchester Belts Copy Share Image
You can't explain collateralized debt obligation in a novel - it's too draggy. — John Lanchester Debt Copy Share Image
'The Big Short' is, among other things, a blistering, detailed indictment of the way Wall Street does business, and its particular villains… — John Lanchester Business Copy Share Image
I'm fortunate in having journalism as a sideline to pay the bills, and I essentially do it in order to take as… — John Lanchester Books Copy Share Image
I write non-fiction quicker, and I write it on a computer. Fiction I write longhand, and that helps make it clear that… — John Lanchester Brain Copy Share Image
I grew up mainly in the Far East, where my father worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which was then… — John Lanchester Bank Copy Share Image
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 Born Copy Share Image
I grew up in Hong Kong, and London used to seem very gray: the sky was gray, the buildings were gray, the… — John Lanchester Buildings Copy Share Image
Germany has to put the broader European interest on the same level as its own national interest, or the euro is toast. — John Lanchester Euro Copy Share Image
I remember, the first few years here, I didn't like London much: too big, too crowded, the physical difficulty of getting around. — John Lanchester Around Copy Share Image
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 Books Copy Share Image
“All the Kamals were fluent in irritation. They loved each other but were almost always annoyed by each other, in ways that… — John Lanchester Annoyed Copy Share Image
“A solicitor had looked up at the sky, swept blue by the wind, and had a sudden sense of religious consolation, a… — John Lanchester Consciousness Copy Share Image
“Petunia only ever went to the doctor reluctantly, and her motive in doing so was always the same: she did it in… — John Lanchester Anxiety Copy Share Image
Nobody in the developing world is going to take, as an answer to their aspirations, the developed world's reply: 'Sorry, you can't;… — John Lanchester Aspirations Copy Share Image
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 Banker Copy Share Image
If European monetary policy is run according to German interests, huge structural imbalances will accumulate. The Germans will then either have to… — John Lanchester Either Copy Share Image
Our societies have achieved a general level of prosperity of which most of all the human beings who have ever lived could… — John Lanchester Enough Copy Share Image
“We fight for autonomy over so many areas of our lives - for decency and democracy and freedom, for suffrage, for the… — John Lanchester Autonomy Copy Share Image
I rather envy writers who do variations on a theme. I like reading those books, but in practice, I can't do it. — John Lanchester Book Copy Share Image
A lot of the time in modern Britain, certainly in urban life, we barely have any contact at all with the people… — John Lanchester Around Copy Share Image
“From his dealings with his mother, Smitty had learned the following truth: the person doing the worrying experiences it as a form… — John Lanchester Fear Copy Share Image
The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form… — John Lanchester Fear Copy Share Image
The Chinese are much too sensible to like turkey - come to think of it, I don't think I've ever encountered turkey… — John Lanchester Come Copy Share Image
