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
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
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
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
The seven Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss-Poor Performance — John Lanchester Performances Copy Share Image
You can't explain collateralized debt obligation in a novel - it's too draggy. — John Lanchester 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 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 Asia 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
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 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 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… — John Lanchester Copy Share Image
I'm an omniviorous reader, but I don't read what could overlap with my own work. It's like tuning a radio frequency -… — John Lanchester Books 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
“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 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 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
When I first travelled to New York in 1982 on a summer holiday as a student, I remember thinking how exciting it… — John Lanchester 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
“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
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
Why should the idea of Western liberal democracy automatically imply unregulated free-market capitalism? — John Lanchester Capitalism 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 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
“As Confucius says, under some circumstances murder can be forgiven; but unreasonableness never is.” — John Lanchester Confucius 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 Copy Share Image
Tapas is one of the world's most civilised drinking and eating traditions. — John Lanchester Drinking Copy Share Image
“It’s that great British middle-class battle cry: “Something must be done!” — John Lanchester Battle 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 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
“Roger was not personally ambitious; he mainly wanted life not to make too many demands on him.” — John Lanchester Ambition Copy Share Image
There's an awful lot of us who don't quite speak finance, speak money. — John Lanchester Finance Copy Share Image
France and Britain have large culinary differences, but one thing they do share is a relatively low tolerance for modernist cooking. — John Lanchester Cooking Copy Share Image
