The Ghost

by Robert Harris

Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start.

You’d be surprised how many people end up in politics because they can’t succeed in their first choice of a career.’

He quoted Seneca, in the original Latin, and then helpfully translated: ‘Who scorns his own life is lord of yours.’