Writing a novel – unlike operating a piece of heavy machinery, say, or cooking a chicken – is not a skill that can be taught. There is no standard way of doing it, just as there is no means of telling, while you’re doing it, whether you’re doing it well or badly. And merely because you’ve done it well once doesn’t mean you can do it well again. Robert Harris Read Quote
Don’t try to write too much in a single session. One thousand words a day is quite enough. Stop after about four or five hours. Robert Harris Read Quote
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. Robert Harris Read Quote
We live in an age of great jitteriness in the financial markets. And there’s no doubt at all, I think, that the volume of computer-traded stocks has helped contribute to that. Robert Harris Read Quote
The financial markets tend to be just a backdrop for a novel, for a heist or something that isn’t necessarily integral to it. On the whole, I don’t think the financial world has been well served by novels. Robert Harris Read Quote
Writers and journalists tend to be simplistic about politics when, like all other areas of life, it’s more complicated. Robert Harris Read Quote
It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money. Robert Harris Read Quote
