"My parents were interested in history and the world. My father read Graham Greene and Georges Simeno..." — Robert Harris

You know, you can be really quite subversive in popular fiction, which is capable of taking on big issues of politics, war, the rise and fall of commercial dynasties.

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

I see myself as the literary equivalent of a skilled lathe-operator, or a basket-weaver; a potter, maybe: I make mildly diverting objects that people want to buy.

I think it's very, very hard not to go slightly crazy if you're in the top in politics - especially if you're there for a long time.