Robert Harris

Robert Harris
British author, journalist, and BBC reporter who became known for his best-selling historical novel, Fatherland. The work is a thriller set during World War II.
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 March 1957
events
History is what we bring to it, not just the events themselves, but how we interpret those events.
crazy thinking long
I think it's very, very hard not to go slightly crazy if you're in the top in politics - especially if you're there for a long time.
thinking anxiety zenith
I think that whenever a nation feels itself to be at is zenith, it starts to feel a creeping sense of anxiety.
writing heart stories
I write as well as I can. I'm a journalist at heart, so it's the story that matters.
portraits would-be rich
If you go back, 'The Great Gatsby' would be a portrait of the rich and fortune made by business.
real writing done
It's when you've stopped writing and are doing other things, especially when you're asleep, that the real work is done.
regret able jokes
My greatest regret as a writer is that I've never been able to include as many jokes as I'd like.
careers flukes unexpected
My literary career was a fluke. Utterly unexpected.
thinking leader scary
One cannot see any world leader who has got a grip on the financial markets these days. They're too big, too fast. I think that's quite scary.
book people pompeii
People will perish, but books are immortal. (Pompeii)
clever mistake stupid
But clever people all make one mistake. They all think everyone else is stupid. And everyone isn't stupid. They just take a bit more time, that's all.
thinking talking talking-to-yourself
You find out what you think by talking to yourself.
work-out history together
Egyptologists, skilled in piecing together the papyri of lost civilisations, suddenly discovered that the same talent could be applied to working out the pattern of German radio traffic.
men names suits
Does a name stick because it suits a man or does the man, unconsciously, evolve into his name?