Robert Harris Quotes

• 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.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Plot, Dominate

• Cut your manuscript ruthlessly but never throw anything away: it’s amazing how often a discarded scene or description, which wouldn’t fit in one place, will work perfectly later.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Perfectly, Scene

• You find out what you think by talking to yourself.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Yourself, Talking

• Writers of fiction should stick to writing, not pop up on panel shows or as a talking head.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writers, Stick

• Writers and journalists tend to be simplistic about politics when, like all other areas of life, it’s more complicated.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Journalism, Complicated

• Working 14 hours a day until you’re 55 and missing your kids growing up is not what I would consider a recipe for happiness.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Recipe, Hours

• Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond price.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Necessary, Luxury

• We say, ‘The market plummets,’ like it’s some roaring creature.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Creature, Market

• Unlike the Holocaust, Stalin’s murders are forgotten: dust blowing in the wind.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Holocaust, Wind

• To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I’ve always wanted to do.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Story, Point

• There’s nothing more interesting than the details of someone’s life.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Details, Nothing

• The true currency of life is time, not money, and we’ve all got a limited stock of that.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Currency, Limited

• The financial world is at the cutting edge of high technology.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Cutting, Edge

• Storytelling has a narcotic power.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Storytelling

• Politics is never a victory, it’s just the remorseless grinding forward of events.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Politics

  Tags in Grinding, Forward

• Orwell has always been a huge influence on me.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Always, Been

• 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.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Scary, Quite

• My greatest regret as a writer is that I’ve never been able to include as many jokes as I’d like.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Include, Regret

• It’s when you’ve stopped writing and are doing other things, especially when you’re asleep, that the real work is done.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing, Stopped

• It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money.

  Robert Harris

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Reduced, Implies

Robert Harris (53)

Birth:	7th March, 1957
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Author, Journalist, Novelist, Screenwriter, Writer

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Today's Anniversary - 21st November

Births

• 1870 - Alexander Berkman
• 1943 - Philip Norman Bredesen Jr.
• 1870 - Mary Johnston
• 1963 - Nicollette Sheridan
• 1937 - Marlo Thomas

Deaths

• 2000 - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke
• 1996 - Mohammad Abdus Salam
• 1999 - Quentin Crisp
• 1959 - Max Baer
• 1922 - Ricardo Flores Magon