Ken Follett Quotes

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

I could fall for you in a heartbeat

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

I might not be a good socialist, any more than I'm a good Christian, but I am one.

Nevertheless, the book gave Jack a feeling he had never had before, that the past was like a story, in which one thing led to another, and the world was not a boundless mystery, but a finite thing that could be comprehended.

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

But desperate people find courage.

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

His aim was the glory of God, but the glory of Philip pleased him too.

Proportion is the heart of beauty.

A baby was like a revolution, Grigori thought: you could start one, but you could not control how it would turn out.

Movies have influenced all writers, not just thriller writers.

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.

Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?

It's great that in the German language I've sold almost 30 million books. Isn't that amazing?

I started writing stories in my spare time.

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

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.

To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color.

I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is, after all, easier than writing.

I read mostly fiction, a lot of 19th-century novels.

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

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.

Ethel said: "Lloyd, there's someone here you may remember-" Daisy could not restrain herself. She ran to Lloyd and threw herself into his arms. She hugged him. She looked into his green eyes, then kissed his brown cheeks and his broken nose and then his mouth. "I love you, Lloyd," she sad madly. "I love you, I love you, I love you." "I love you, too, Daisy," he said. Behind her, Daisy heard Ethel's wry voice. "You do remember, I see.

Everybody takes what they life from the teachings of the church, and ignores the parts that don't suit them.

Hard work should be rewarded by good food.

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

I’ve worked with volunteers before,” he began. “It’s important not to… not to treat them like servants. We may feel that they are laboring to obtain a heavenly reward, and should therefore work harder than they would for money; but they don’t necessarily take that attitude. They feel they’re working for nothing, and doing a great kindness to us thereby; and if we seem ungrateful they will work slowly and make mistakes. It will be best to rule them with a light touch.

You see, all that I ever held dear has been taken from me," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And when you've lost everything-" Her facade began to crumble, and her voice broke, but she made herself carry on. "When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

We’re all good when it suits us, he used to say: that doesn’t count. It’s when you want so badly to do something wrong—when you’re about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbor’s wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble—that’s when you need the rules. Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn’t wave it until you’re about to put it to the test.