I used desperately to want to be a brooding hero from literature, but I'm optimistic, healthy and fair-haired. Nick Harkaway brooddesperatelyfair Change image and share on social
If you ask who I aspire to, well, if a single line of mine was as funny as P. G. Wodehouse can be, that would be great. Nick Harkaway aspirefunnygreat Change image and share on social
I wanted a pseudonym partly because I'm quite shy and private. I know that sounds ludicrous, but if I should be lucky enough to make a hit, I wanted to be able to shrug off the mantel of Nick Harkaway when I got home. Nick Harkaway harkawayhithome share on social
In both 'Tigerman' and my first book, 'The Gone-Away World,' there are characters who never really get names. They're too fundamentally who they are to be bound by a name, so I couldn't give them one. Nick Harkaway bindbookcharacter Change image and share on social
The First World War was a horror of gas, industrialised slaughter, fear, and appalling human suffering. Nick Harkaway appallfearhorror Change image and share on social
I make up names for people all the time - it's part of writing. Very often, the name comes with the character, along with of a sense of who they are and what they do. Nick Harkaway charactermakename Change image and share on social
The market, as we're all painfully aware in the aftermath of the banking crisis, can be an idiot. It has no perception of right or wrong, or even sensible or insane. It sees profit. Nick Harkaway aftermathawarebank Change image and share on social
I know that when I talk to my parents and my friends, there's a strong feeling of the world out of control and damaged. Nick Harkaway controldamagefelt Change image and share on social
In abandoning the understanding that things - services, goods, wars, and houses - have costs, we risk becoming infantilised, incapable of making decisions about government or finance, and perhaps above all about the environment, the wellbeing of the planet upon which we depend and which our children will inherit from us. Nick Harkaway abandonchildcost share on social
Happiness is boundlessly weird. Other people's choices often seem to delight them, where I would run screaming. Nick Harkaway boundlesslychoicedelight Change image and share on social