My mum had this amazing ability to deflect things, and from an early age, I knew what I was not supposed to… — John Lanchester Ability Copy Share Image
My mother was very proud of being Irish and being a Gunnigan in a straightforward way. — John Lanchester Being Copy Share Image
'Whoops!' was a spin-off from 'Capital.' I had the research and wanted to place it somewhere. — John Lanchester Capital Copy Share Image
“He looked as if he he subsisted exclusively on carbohydrates and ill feeling.” — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
“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 Art Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Is it OK to admit to being slightly obsessed with the TV programme 'Great British Menu?' — John Lanchester 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
People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their… — John Lanchester 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
There is a moral underpinning to economics. And the kinds of questions that it asks and the kinds of solutions it proposes… — John Lanchester 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
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
People misunderstand what a police state is. It isn't a country where the police strut around in jackboots; it's a country where… — John Lanchester Country Copy Share Image
“London was so rich, and also so green, and somehow so detailed: full of stuff that had been made, and bought, and… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
Now that I'm an adult and have a big say in what we eat on Christmas Day, turkey doesn't even make it… — John Lanchester 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
“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
If European monetary policy is run according to German interests, huge structural imbalances will accumulate. The Germans will then either have to… — John Lanchester 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 Copy Share Image
“It gave her a sudden sense that it was now her turn to grow old, to find the world changing, sliding away… — John Lanchester Aging Copy Share Image
To make three films out of one shortish book, they have to turn it into an epic, just as 'Lord of the… — John Lanchester Adventure Copy Share Image
We can all instinctively understand the idea of life insurance; most of us will feel an instinctive repugnance at the thought of… — John Lanchester Ideas Copy Share Image
Once I've properly finished a book, my ideal state of being would be to never think about it again. But with 'Capital,'… — John Lanchester Books 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
You can't explain collateralized debt obligation in a novel - it's too draggy. — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
The seven Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss-Poor Performance — John Lanchester Performances Copy Share Image
I grew up abroad, and when I first passed through London in the 1970s, it seemed a drab and provincial place. — John Lanchester 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 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
Security is a complicated idea and one with an immense potential to trap us - that was one lesson I learnt from… — John Lanchester 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
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
A novel usually begins, in my experience, with a thought or image that won't leave me alone. — John Lanchester Alone 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
But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
“London created the Underground, and the Underground created London.” — John Lanchester London Copy Share Image
The early-'80s recession was good for good restaurants, not least because it put bad ones out of business. — 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
The economics of setting up a new restaurant are scary in good times and terrifying in bad ones. — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
