Ken Follett Quotes
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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.
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I went and looked at one of these great cathedrals one day, and I was blown away by it. From there I became interested in how cathedrals were built, and from there I became interested in the society that built the medieval cathedral. It occurred to me at some point that the story of the building of a cathedral could be a great popular novel.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.
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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?'
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I started writing stories in my spare time.
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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?'
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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.
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The CIA's research program is described in a book called The Search for the Manchurian Candidate.
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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.
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It's great that in the German language I've sold almost 30 million books. Isn't that amazing?
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There is a real connection between Philosopy and fiction.
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There is no point in asking a man a question until you have established whether he has any reason to lie to you.
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The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century.
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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.
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A very good editor is almost a collaborator.
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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.
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I'm a great planner, so before I ever write chapter 1, I work out what happens in every chapter and who the characters are. I usually spend a year on the outline.
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With hindsight, we see that the Soviet Union never had a chance of world domination, but we didn't know that then.