Ken Follett Quotes

Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer.

Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.

She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly.

When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

The CIA's research program is described in a book called "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate."

Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.

The degradation to which you subject others comes back, sooner or later, to haunt you.

In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation.

In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.

The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.

For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words.

Hard work should be rewarded by good food.

Proportion is the heart of beauty.

We all now tell stories by cutting from one dramatic scene to the next, whereas Victorian novelists felt free to write long passages of undramatic summary.

She wanted to say 'I love you like a thunderstorm, like a lion, like a helpless rage'.

The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.

you should first follow the plow if you want to dance the harvest jig.

I use a professional researcher in New York who does all the legwork, all that stuff which would take me days and weeks of calling, waiting for people to call back.

Fear could paralyse. Action was the antidote.

James Bond is quite serious about his drinks and clothing and cigarettes and food and all that sort of thing. There is nothing wry or amused about James Bond.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

Man who betrayed you once would betray you twice.

But the lesson of Abraham's story is that God demands the best we have to offer, that which is most precious to us.

I could fall for you in a heartbeat

But desperate people find courage.

It was the most romantic plane ever made.

There is a real connection between Philosopy and fiction.

I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult.

When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.

I wanted to be some kind of captain of industry. Then I wanted to be in advertising, and then I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.

I imagined it. I wrote it. But I guess I never thought I'd see it.

My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.

Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.

The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century.

Hunger is the best seasoning.

Culture clash is terrific drama.

Knotty theological questions are the least worrying of problems to me. Why? Because they will be resolved in the hereafter, and meanwhile they can be safely shelved.

One of the hardest things for me, now that I'm famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.

I am very fond of Edith Wharton. She's quite high brow but also a great storyteller. My favorite is 'The House of Mirth.' I also like 'The Reef.

I aim to be translucent, so you don't notice the words, just their meaning. I haven't much insight into people's motivations.

Jack Reacher is a brilliant movie

The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.

An awful lot of thriller writers write women rather badly. So just doing it OK gets a lot of credit.

When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?

After a certain point, most people, including editors, will tell you everything you do is great.

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

Why did people manufacture trouble when there was already so much of it in the world?

I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation. I want readers to feel: OK, this probably didn't happen, but it might have.

There is no point in asking a man a question until you have established whether he has any reason to lie to you.