Quotes from Ken Follett

Be a perfectionist.

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.

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

The boundary between philosophy and fiction is not as clear cut as you may think and the two definitely interact.

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

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

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

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

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.

Hard work should be rewarded by good food.

I could fall for you in a heartbeat

A man hates the person he has wronged, paradoxically. I think it's because the victim is a perpetual reminder that he behaved shamefully.

You never get cheered for telling people the situation is not as simple as they think.

The Führer's judgement will be proved right - again.' 'Of course it will, Erik.' 'He has never yet been wrong!' 'A man thought he could fly, so he jumped off the top of a ten-storey building, and as he fell past the fifth floor, flapping his arms uselessly in the air, he was heard to say: So far, so good!

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

I think more people should shoot newspaper editors...it might improve the press

When a man is certain that he knows God's will, and is resolved to do it regardless of the cost, he is the most dangerous person in the world.

Most rich people have a gangster in their ancestry somewhere.

It's like knowing your way through the forest. You don't keep the whole forest in your mind, but wherever you are, you know where to go next.

What you're doing is wrong," he said. "I mean evil. To give up happiness like this is like throwing jewels into the ocean. It's far worse than any sin.

He was the worst kind of Christian, Philip realized: he embraced all of the negatives, enforced every proscription, insisted on all forms of denial, and demanded strict punishment for every offence; yet he ignored all the compassion of Christianity, denied its mercy, flagrantly disobeyed its ethic of love, and openly flouted the gentle laws of Jesus.

It was an odd thing to do, to stand in a street in the hope of seeing someone who hardly knew him, but he did not want to move.

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

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.