A chill December morning dawned, with rags and tatters of mist hanging on the trees like poor people’s washing.

— Ken Follett

Alaina's brother, Richard, sometimes reminded her of her father, with a look or a gesture, and that was when she felt a surge of affection.

— Ken Follett

All his life he would cherish the memory of an endless caravan of camels alongside the railway line, the laden beasts plodding patiently through the snow, ignoring the twentieth century as it hurtled past them in a clash of iron and a shriek of steam.

— Ken Follett

Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.

— Ken Follett

And where are you going?" His voice was playfully challenging. "To get some breakfast," she said without stopping. He leered. "I've got something for you to eat," he called after her." I might bite it off, though," she said over her shoulder.

— Ken Follett

Being a monk was the strangest and most perverted way of life imaginable. Monks spent half their lives putting themselves through pain and discomfort that they could easily avoid, and the other half muttering meaningless mumbo jumbo in empty churches at all hours of the day and night. They deliberately shunned anything good—girls, sports, feasting and family life.

— Ken Follett

Englishmen did not speak to strangers on trains ...

— Ken Follett

Everything in Tom's cathedral looked as if it was meant to be. Perhaps her life was like that, everything foreordained in a grand design, and she was like a foolish builder who wanted a waterfall in the chancel.

— Ken Follett

Fathers were supposed to be invulnerable - but that attitude was childish, he now saw. Irritatingly, he might have to change his outlook. He could no longer be merely indignant and resentful. He was not the only sufferer. Dad had hurt him, but he had hurt Dad as well, and they were both responsible. Feeling responsible was not as comfortable as feeling outraged.

— Ken Follett

Fear could paralyze. Action was the antidote.

— Ken Follett