Words matter. These are the best Ken Follett Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
People are much more complicated in real life, but my characters are as subtle and nuanced as I can make them. But if you say my characters are too black and white, you’ve missed the point. Villains are meant to be black-hearted in popular novels. If you say I have a grey-hearted villain, then I’ve failed.
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.
I start with the history, and I ask myself, ‘What are the great turning points? What are the big dramatic scenes that are essential to telling the story?’
I might not be a good socialist, any more than I’m a good Christian, but I am one.
There is no point in asking a man a question until you have established whether he has any reason to lie to you.
World War II is the greatest drama in human history, the biggest war ever and a true battle of good and evil. I imagine writers will continue to get stories from it, and readers will continue to love them, for many more years.
A very good editor is almost a collaborator.
My favorite period is World War II, and I’m in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.
There was a very serious communist strain among American intellectuals before the war. America was a more tolerant place in those days, and Communists were not treated as pariahs. That ended with the McCarthy era.
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.
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.
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.
Most of my stories have some basis in fact.
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.
Well, for people who want to write best sellers, the best advice I can give is to say that the novel has to engage the reader emotionally.
Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I’m looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.
I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.
There is a real connection between Philosopy and fiction.
I wake up with the story in my head, so I really like to be at my desk about five minutes after I wake up. So I don’t get dressed. I put on a bathrobe, I make tea and sit at my desk.
Movies have influenced all writers, not just thriller writers.
The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century.
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.
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 started writing stories in my spare time.
I aim to be translucent, so you don’t notice the words, just their meaning. I haven’t much insight into people’s motivations.
With hindsight, we see that the Soviet Union never had a chance of world domination, but we didn’t know that then.
I have quite a few different Bibles. Having rejected my parents’ religion, I still think the King James Bible is the most important work of literature in English. None of us can help being influenced by it.
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.
Be a perfectionist.
It’s great that in the German language I’ve sold almost 30 million books. Isn’t that amazing?
