Ken Follett

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'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.

Movies have influenced all writers, not just thriller writers.

Culture clash is terrific drama.

I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

Most of my stories have some basis in fact.

My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.

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.

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?'

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.

Moderates always seem to deal in hopes rather than in facts.

Be a perfectionist.

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.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

I started writing stories in my spare time.

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.

I am very fond of Edith Wharton. She's quite high brow but also a great storyteller. My favorite is 'The House of Mirth.' I also like 'The Reef.'

The CIA's research program is described in a book called The Search for the Manchurian Candidate.

It was the most romantic plane ever made.

I enjoy learning technical details.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

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.

The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century.

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.

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.

The old men were still running the country. The politicians who had caused millions of deaths were now celebrating, as if they had done something wonderful.

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.

With hindsight, we see that the Soviet Union never had a chance of world domination, but we didn't know that then.

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.

Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.

An awful lot of thriller writers write women rather badly. So just doing it OK gets a lot of credit.

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.

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.

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.

With the World War II era, there's so much written material to draw on. When you go back to the 14th century, you have to imagine more.

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.

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.

I aim to be translucent, so you don't notice the words, just their meaning. I haven't much insight into people's motivations.

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.