"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"
About this Quote
A bestselling novelist admitting he outsources the “days and weeks of calling” is less a confession than a glimpse of how modern authorship actually functions: as production, not solitary inspiration. Ken Follett’s line drains the romance out of research on purpose. “Legwork” and “stuff” are deliberately unglamorous words, the vocabulary of errands and administrative drag. The effect is to normalize a division of labor that many readers would rather not picture behind a historical epic.
The intent is practical, almost managerial: Follett is protecting the scarce resource that matters most to him, uninterrupted time to draft and revise. The subtext is sharper. He’s signaling seriousness about accuracy while also acknowledging that accuracy is expensive - not just in money, but in attention. In an era when writers are expected to be their own marketers, publicists, and fact-checkers, his choice reads like a refusal: I’m not going to spend my creative energy trapped in phone-tag purgatory.
Context matters here. Follett writes sprawling, research-heavy books that trade on an aura of authenticity: the machinery of war, the geometry of cathedrals, the texture of daily life in past centuries. A “professional researcher in New York” is a kind of invisible co-author who feeds that aura, translating the mess of archives, experts, and permissions into usable narrative fuel. The quote works because it punctures the myth while quietly reinforcing the brand: the books are meticulously built, and Follett runs the build like a pro.
The intent is practical, almost managerial: Follett is protecting the scarce resource that matters most to him, uninterrupted time to draft and revise. The subtext is sharper. He’s signaling seriousness about accuracy while also acknowledging that accuracy is expensive - not just in money, but in attention. In an era when writers are expected to be their own marketers, publicists, and fact-checkers, his choice reads like a refusal: I’m not going to spend my creative energy trapped in phone-tag purgatory.
Context matters here. Follett writes sprawling, research-heavy books that trade on an aura of authenticity: the machinery of war, the geometry of cathedrals, the texture of daily life in past centuries. A “professional researcher in New York” is a kind of invisible co-author who feeds that aura, translating the mess of archives, experts, and permissions into usable narrative fuel. The quote works because it punctures the myth while quietly reinforcing the brand: the books are meticulously built, and Follett runs the build like a pro.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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