John Lanchester

“I grew up abroad, and when I first passed through London in the 1970s, it seemed a drab and provincial place.”

“I have a horror of going down dead ends, which you can easily do with a novel, spending months on it and then realising that it's all wrong. It's demoralising, because you don't get the time...”

“As an outsider to and observer of the restaurant business, one of the things I most admire about it is the risks people are willing to take.”

“I'm fortunate in having journalism as a sideline to pay the bills, and I essentially do it in order to take as long as I want with books.”

“I have sane friends, solvent friends, foodie friends, and friends who can take time off in the week, but I don't know one single person who ticks all those boxes.”

“My standard Nando's order is a chicken breast burger served 'medium,' which is still fairly spicy.”

“In sport, the money goes to the talent; it goes directly to the worker - unlike a bank, which sits in the middle of transactions and whose income bears no relation to any of the services it...”

“At the risk of being old-fartish, I like old-school wines that taste the way the winemaker intended, as opposed to organic and untreated ones with more bottle variation. If I want to take a...”

“I rather envy writers who do variations on a theme. I like reading those books, but in practice, I can't do it.”