46 Nick Harkaway Quotes for You to Enjoy

Nick Harkaway

English Novelist

Born: 1972

Myself People Think World Writing You

Related authors: Aldous Huxley Charles Dickens E. M. Forster J. R. R. Tolkien Thomas Hardy William Golding William Makepeace Thackeray

Yes, you are under surveillance. Yes, it is odious. Yes, it should bother you. And yes, it's hard to know how to avoid it. Nick Harkaway

You Bother Know How Odious Yes Surveillance Should Hard Avoid

Peace is not a state - it is a choice, and you have to remake it every day. It's possible to get a sort of stability, a habit of peace, but it's like an egg balanced, spinning, on its point: lose your momentum, and your equilibrium is gone, too. Nick Harkaway

Day You Peace Every Day Lose Gone Every Too State Possible Spinning Habit Point Remake Like Balanced Sort Equilibrium Get Egg Stability Choice Your Momentum

My wife runs the charity Reprieve, and so rendition, droning, and capital punishment are very much the topics of our dinner table because of that. Nick Harkaway

Charity Wife Dinner Our Topics Punishment Dinner Table Runs Table Rendition Because Very Reprieve Capital Capital Punishment Much

I wrote the first draft of 'Tigerman' while my wife was pregnant - needless to say, I was relaxed and casual about her well-being during this tender time - and the novel clearly has its center in that panicked parental desperation that accompanies a first child and in the admittedly comedic extremes to which it drives us. Nick Harkaway

Time Desperation Wife First Needless Panicked Extremes Relaxed Say Admittedly About Parental Tender Casual Drives Clearly First Child Comedic Wrote Well-Being Accompanies Child Center Which While Pregnant Us Novel Her Draft

Revolutions come in two stages: the bit where everything gets smashed and the bit where you have to build it again. The first is great fun; the second is so very hard. Nick Harkaway

Great You First Build Everything Bit Great Fun Smashed Come Very Revolutions Gets Where Stages Again Hard Fun Second Two

'Tigerman' was born in the front seat of a Hilux SUV on the road north out of Chiang Mai. Nick Harkaway

Out Born Road North Front Seat

I'm a novelist: I spend a great part of my day pretending to myself that I'm in a different world, being a different person, faced with decisions I pretend I haven't created. Nick Harkaway

Myself Day Great World Pretending Spend Pretend Faced Great Part Part Person Being Different Decisions Created Different Person Novelist Different World

After university, I went into film. I started out making tea, managed a brief stint as an assistant director, then found myself writing a screenplay. In the end, I wrote quite a few - but by January 2006, I wanted out. Nick Harkaway

There is not now, nor I suspect will there ever be, a le Carre novel with ninjas in it. Most serious novelists are wary of including ninjas in their writing. That's a shame, because many much-admired works of modern fiction could benefit from a few. Nick Harkaway

My reading of history is that we continually inherit trouble. Nick Harkaway

History Trouble Reading Continually Inherit

I'm fascinated by human agency - by the process of decision, both in the individual and the mass. Nick Harkaway

Decision Both Individual Mass Human Process Agency Fascinated

I studied revolutions at university, and I think each revolution must begin with a moment of 'no.' If enough people have that moment at the same time, it becomes a movement. Nick Harkaway

Time People Revolution Think Enough Enough People Must Studied Becomes Begin Same Revolutions Same Time Movement Moment Each University

I am an avid reader of comics, though I came to them late. Nick Harkaway

Late Though Reader Am Comics Came Them Avid

The mainstream of literary culture in the U.K. is very averse to writing about technology. Nick Harkaway

Technology Culture Writing About Mainstream Very Literary Averse

As I work, I see my writing - each scene, each chapter, each section, each book - in three-act structures and classic myths, and I analyze them through the handy filter of the detective story. Nick Harkaway

Work Book Chapter Writing Filter Analyze Section Detective See Detective Story Classic Scene Structures Through Myths Handy Story Them Each

The idea that the law should punish what is rude; that government should protect our tender sensibilities from those who would - quite often with shallow motivations but sometimes with deeper and more serious complaints - challenge our national certainties and rituals, should alarm and anger us. Nick Harkaway

Government Anger Law Sometimes Challenge Rude National Complaints Our Punish Those Would More Shallow Tender Rituals Idea Protect Motivations Quite Often Sensibilities Us Should Certainties Who Serious Deeper Alarm

With true free speech has to come an understanding of when and when not to use it. But you can't legislate that. It must be voluntary - especially in a world where a whisper can reach a million people in an eye blink. Nick Harkaway

In the span of a human lifetime, and well within the collective memory, Britain went from a stable imperial power ruling an appreciable fraction of the Earth's surface to being a tumultuous patchwork which was at least superficially in decline. Nick Harkaway

Cheese is good. And Britain, despite the grumblings of the French and the outrage of the Swiss, not to mention some plucky challenges from Italy, Austria, and Spain, has some of the best cheese in the world. We're world leaders in cheese. Nick Harkaway

Best Good Challenges World Cheese Despite Some Mention Outrage Leaders French Italy Austria Spain Swiss World Leaders Britain

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