'The Infinities' is a shortish book but densely loaded with Nabokovian slyness, gorgeous imagery, and disturbing insights into what it means to… — Justin Cartwright Book Copy Share Image
It's a strange failure of the literary world that Updike never quite received his due. Despite winning two Pulitzers and two National… — Justin Cartwright Failure Copy Share Image
Someone once pointed out that there are quite a lot of animals in my books, and I'm sure that is something to… — Justin Cartwright Animals Copy Share Image
Advertising, the product of capitalism, can only justify itself on the premise that the market is a force for good. — Justin Cartwright Advertising Copy Share Image
I always assumed I could never make a living out of literary fiction, and I was right. When I did try, it… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
Personally, I have detested Gordon Brown since the moment in 2001 when he tried to make cheap capital out of the Laura… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
I thought I'd write a massive postmodern novel about Richard the Lionheart and Robin Hood, but it turns out they couldn't have… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
The point about 'state-of-the-nation' novels is not that they should be about the 'state-of-the-nation', but they should be about people. — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
There was loose talk of Enron management practices and reminders of a scandal at the University of Toronto, when a big donor… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
In the new artisan coffee movement, Jeremy Challender, a 32-year-old Australian who is one of the founders of Prufrock Coffee, explains precision… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
Franschhoek Valley was, in recent memory, a simple place with some notable vineyards and two or three streets of Victorian cottages and… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
If I was at home, I'd find myself checking email and looking at the Internet when I should be working. In the… — Justin Cartwright Coffee Copy Share Image
Nicola Barker is both prodigiously talented and admirably fearless. I have loved her books. But for some time, I had little or… — Justin Cartwright Books Copy Share Image
'Powers of Persuasion: The Story of British Advertising' by Winston Fletcher - the impression you get from reading this book, which covers… — Justin Cartwright Advertising Copy Share Image
Great architects like Taut, Mendelsohn, and Gropius built some astonishing buildings which were to change the way architects around the world thought.… — Justin Cartwright Architecture Copy Share Image
DeLillo has said that he no longer feels a compulsion to write long, compendious books. In his later years, Saul Bellow said… — Justin Cartwright America Copy Share Image
Winning the Whitbread was a very major thing for me. I'd always been well reviewed, but this made me widely read. — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
I write from what I take to be the realist's point of view, looking at life as it really is - or… — Justin Cartwright Life Copy Share Image
Weimar lasted 14 years, the Third Reich only 12. Yet Weimar is always seen as a prelude to the Third Reich, which… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
Strangely enough, the legend of John Brown, who was clearly crazy, helped the abolitionist cause and is thought to have precipitated the… — Justin Cartwright Abolitionist Copy Share Image
Nadine Gordimer came over just before she died. She didn't want to talk about books or the arts, but about the abuse… — Justin Cartwright Abuse Copy Share Image
Transport is not a ministry the ambitious should accept: no transport minister has gone on to be prime minister. — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
James McBride's 'The Good Lord Bird' is set in the mid-19th century and is based on the real life of John Brown,… — Justin Cartwright Bird Copy Share Image
This is the strange thing about South Africa - for all its corruption and crime, it seems to offer a stimulating sense… — Justin Cartwright Corruption Copy Share Image
The great thing about the public is that they're quite capable of believing two absolutely contrary views at the same time. — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
The druidical claims for Stonehenge seem to belong to that bonkers-but-persistent strand of Englishness that believes there is something particularly mystical about… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
I love John Updike immoderately. I am profoundly shocked that he has gone because he was, for me, the greatest American writer… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
Homer Collyer's chosen form of self-expression is the piano, although late in life, when his hearing also goes, he takes to writing. — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
A good novel is something that challenges perception, that allows you to see the world anew through a different point of view… — Justin Cartwright Books Copy Share Image
In Sydney, I gave what was billed as a masterclass to bright students of writing at the University of Sydney. But the… — Justin Cartwright Books Copy Share Image
'A Just Defiance' has been a huge success in South Africa. While reading at times like a well-written thriller, its significance is… — Justin Cartwright Apartheid Copy Share Image
We authors certainly don't know what is going to happen to our books. Are they going to disappear into the ether, following… — Justin Cartwright Being Copy Share Image
I thought that, post-apartheid, there would be absolutely no interest in South Africa. That has been both true and untrue. The major… — Justin Cartwright Apartheid Copy Share Image
The ANC was the product of a much earlier South Africa, a gradualist and non-tribal multi-racial organisation, driven to violence by the… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
I love Franschhoek, and straight off the plane, I went to the incomparable Quartier Francais, on the main street, for breakfast. This… — Justin Cartwright Copy Share Image
I grew up reading Updike. I remember being alarmed to find that he had published short stories by the time he was… — Justin Cartwright Art Copy Share Image
'Homer and Langley' is the work of E. L. Doctorow's old age. There are fewer Homeric references than you might have expected,… — Justin Cartwright Age Copy Share Image
As I read 'The Infinities', with its magical, playful richness, its sensuous delight in the power of language to convey the strangeness… — Justin Cartwright Beauty Copy Share Image
I was once asked by Jeremy Paxman what is it about celebrity and said that people these days seem to think a… — Justin Cartwright Celebrity Copy Share Image
America is the big subject of the second half of the 20th century, tackled in one form or another by all the… — Justin Cartwright America Copy Share Image
