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
lives marine novels operative people sorts
I like to take people you wouldn't really think people would write novels about: an aqueduct engineer, a code-breaker, a hedge-fund manager. It's in those sorts of lives that I find more fascination than in a CIA operative or a Marine or something like that.
emotion emotions family people swayed sympathy
Those two people were swayed more by sympathy and emotion for the family than anything objective. That's my feeling.
basically black crisis forget people poverty unless
Black poverty has persisted and become intractable but unless we have some crisis like this, we basically forget about these people -- out of sight, out of mind.
equivalent people
I see myself as the literary equivalent of a skilled lathe-operator, or a basket-weaver; a potter, maybe: I make mildly diverting objects that people want to buy.
enjoy gets people playing ready speed
Many people don't see this kind of speed in our league. When you see it, it rattles you, it gets you ready and that's why I enjoy playing them (Braves).
areas people search
The more people we have down here, the better we can search areas and get people out.
biggest cent change embracing future historians millions party people per politics sure tax trade union
I am sure future historians will say the biggest and most astonishing change in politics has been the embracing of all the tenets of Thatcherism by the party of Keir Hardie: trade union legislation, Europe, the replacement of Trident, 10 per cent tax for people who have made millions from their companies.
book people pompeii
People will perish, but books are immortal. (Pompeii)
people house gold
For me, as I suspect for most people, there comes a point where you have enough. If you've got £20 million, why keep going until you've got £100 million or £1,000 million? Does anyone need another vast yacht or private jet or a house full of gold?
character ideas people
First comes an idea. Then, characters begin to evolve out of the landscape of that idea. And then, finally, characters dominate: plot is simply a function of what these people might do or be. Everything has to flow from their personalities; otherwise it will not be emotionally engaging, or plausible.
africa hospital minor running south sure took
It was a minor injury. He was running when it happened. We took him to hospital in South Africa because we just wanted to make sure he was okay, and that done, he is now back to work.
attitude change fling hands holding men mores quite social time
Social mores change all the time. In the mid-1970s, it would've been astonishing, say, to see two men holding hands in the streets. And the attitude to having a fling with a girl, or whatever, was quite different then.
beyond luxury spend within
Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond price.
life
There's nothing more interesting than the details of someone's life.