"You know, you can be really quite subversive in popular fiction, which is capable of taking on big i..." — Robert Harris

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.

It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money.