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
writing political interest
I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power.
writing trying four
Don't try to write too much in a single session. One thousand words a day is quite enough. Stop after about four or five hours.
writing heart stories
I write as well as I can. I'm a journalist at heart, so it's the story that matters.
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.
flower writing thinking
It is perfectly legitimate to write novels which are essentially prose poems, but in the end, I think, a novel is like a car, and if you buy a car and grow flowers in it, you're forgetting that the car is designed to take you somewhere else.
morning writing together
I've always just wanted to earn my living by writing. The best thing is to go into my study in the morning and put words together.
writing years too-late
Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start.
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.
band best freshman marching relationships since year
I've been in marching band since my freshman year and the best part of it for me has been the relationships I've made.
appear engaged gone love might politics scared side trench warfare
I used to love politics. I can't say I do any more. All the fun has gone out of it. Each side is engaged in this trench warfare of managerialism. They're all too scared to say anything that might make them appear something other than completely bland.
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.
life
There's nothing more interesting than the details of someone's life.
head missed pressure relieve shooting
I wasn't going to let it get in my head that I had missed a couple. I was going to keep shooting and relieve pressure off some of these guys.
dances everybody grim king street
You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper.