Robert Harris Quotes

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.

A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody book that’s ever been written.

To say she was my girlfriend was absurd: no one the wrong side of thirty has a girlfriend… I suppose I ought to have realize it’s ominous that forty thousand years of human language had failed to produce a word for our relationship.

People will perish, but books are immortal. (Pompeii)

The only thing you can be sure of, Herr March, is that - whoever wins - still standing when the smoke of battle clears will be the banks of the cantons of Switzerland.

What fascinates people isn't policy- who cares about policy? What fascinates people is always people- the detail of another person's life.

Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.

And the great thing about money is that it doesn’t matter when you harvest it. It’s an all-year crop.

People perish. Books are immortal.