Digitisation was supposed to lead to a great democratisation of access to creative work. Nick Harkaway accesscreativedemocratisation Change image and share on social
The idea that the law should punish what is rude; that government should protect our tender sensibilities from those who would - quite often with shallow motivations but sometimes with deeper and more serious complaints - challenge our national certainties and rituals, should alarm and anger us. Nick Harkaway alarmangercertainty share on social
I'm usually reading too many books - in fact, I'm usually reading enough books that if the stack fell on me, I'd be injured. Nick Harkaway bookfactfall Change image and share on social
In ancient Greece, Socrates reportedly didn't fancy a literate society. He felt that people would lose the capacity to think for themselves, simply adopting the perspective of a handy written opinion, and that they would cease to remember what could be written down. Nick Harkaway adoptancientcapacity share on social
Revolutions come in two stages: the bit where everything gets smashed and the bit where you have to build it again. The first is great fun; the second is so very hard. Nick Harkaway bitebuildfun Change image and share on social
I'm a novelist: I spend a great part of my day pretending to myself that I'm in a different world, being a different person, faced with decisions I pretend I haven't created. Nick Harkaway createdaydecision Change image and share on social
I do not propose that everyone in Guantanamo or its evil twin at Bagram is innocent. I just don't believe we should incarcerate people without trial and torture them or facilitate and profit from their torture. Nick Harkaway bagramevilfacilitate share on social
We have a curious relationship with 'funny' in the U.K. We love to laugh, but we also think that making people laugh is just a little bit second-tier, especially in a literary context. Nick Harkaway bitecontextcurious Change image and share on social
In the span of a human lifetime, and well within the collective memory, Britain went from a stable imperial power ruling an appreciable fraction of the Earth's surface to being a tumultuous patchwork which was at least superficially in decline. Nick Harkaway appreciablebritaincollective share on social
I'm not an absolutist about free speech. Intellectually, I believe that most of the time it's better to let things get said, argue them, and put lies and stupidities to rest. Practically, I know that newspapers rarely issue corrections with the same prominence they give to denouncements - and Twitter, by its nature, never does. Nick Harkaway absolutistarguecorrection share on social