Robert Harris

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

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

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.

Merely implying bias due to a judge's ethnic heritage is wrong as a matter of principle and legally illegitimate.

Everybody you work with has their own voice, and if you do your job well enough, even their closest friends or their partner of 40 years isn't going to recognise the fingerprints of a ghostwriter.

It's a terrifying thing to be perhaps 16 or 17 and feel like you are a failure and a has-been.