Jeffrey Archer
Title: Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare
Full Name: Jeffrey Howard Archer
Birthdate: April 15, 1940
Birthplace: London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation: Author, Convict, and Politician
Profile: UK Member of Parliament for Louth (1969–74). Found guilty
of perjury and imprisoned (2001–2003). Best known for
First Among Equals.
Website: http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/site/
Number of Quotes: 46
A strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength.
Accept nothing, Believe no one, challenge everything. It’s the only law I live by.
Actually, Sydney is my second favourite city on earth, I love Sydney, but this is the greatest.
And I did wonder - because it's now three years ago since I left prison - whether there would come a time when I
would forget it, or it would be in the past as anything else might be - no, it's there every day of my life.
At the end of my trial, I was rather hoping the judge would send me to Australia for the rest of my life.
Birth is life's first lottery ticket.
But I certainly made mistakes, for which I regret, I think most human beings in their lifetime make
mistakes, mine ended up in two years prison - two very remarkable years from which I learnt a lot.
But the thing I felt most strongly about, and put at the end of one of the prison diaries, was education.
Chatterers are a menace.
Exclusive will not be published in book format.
Fortune favours the brave.
I am currently doing about 30 charity auctions a year.
I do greatly admire Australian artists.
I have discovered with advancing years that few things are entirely black or white, but more often different shades of grey.
I feel I have had a very interesting life, but I am rather hoping there is still more to
come. I still haven't captained the England cricket team, or sung at Carnegie Hall!
I find I don't learn a lot while I'm talking.
I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt a lot about other people and the problems they have. If I was lucky
enough to live to a hundred, how I will feel about two per cent of my life being that way, I don't know.
I put £150,000 into the stage production of Grease and have got back £1.5 million so far. It has been a fantastic success.
I spent my first three weeks there on a wing with 21 murderers. I met some very
evil people there but also some men who'd had no upbringing, no chance in life.
I think my attitude to human beings has changed since leaving prison.
I think when you've lost an election by 179, there's going to be a period of time after eighteen years in government
when you can't do anything right, and people just kick you for the sake of it, will never admit they voted Conservative.
I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of power.
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
I'm not involved in politics any more and they're quite right.
I'm not taking any interest in politics. I'm not involved in politics in any way. My life is in writing now.
I'm passionate again about writing. This is important to me; it's got to be the comeback book.
I've been doing nineteen hours a day on London, nothing else, I mean this has been my whole life, and writing has
been put on one side, and if I'm privileged enough to be the Mayor of this city, then I will not write again.
I've loved art for more than 30 years.
If you make a deal with a fool, don't be surprised when they act foolishly.
Never be frightened by those you assume have more talent than you do, because in the end energy will prevail.
One lesson a man learns from Harvard Business School is that an executive is only as good as his health.
Sixty per cent of people entering prison today are illiterate.
Some people standby you in your darkest hour while others walk away; only a select few march towards you and become even closer friends.
The discipline required for athletics carried through to writing. You call it obsession. I call it discipline. By the way, I see nothing wrong with that.
Time spent on preparation is seldom wasted.
Very few people deserted me when I went to prison. They stayed loyal.
We all make mistakes but one has to move on.
We go on a lot in this country about offences being caused by drugs. The truth is
just as many offences are caused by drink. And that should be taken into account.
Well I certainly have learned and I hope I'm moving on and certainly two years of prison was a terrible punishment.
Well I think after leaving prison, and having written three diaries about life in
prison, it became a sort of a new challenge to write another novel, to write a new novel.
What I have found is that real friends stand by you.
When a book comes out I wonder if one person will buy it. It's agony. Of course it's stupid, but it's agony.
When I was deputy chairman I could travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh without leaving Tory land. In a two-week period I
covered every constituency in which we had an MP. There were 14. Now we have only one. We appear to have given up.
When I was three, I wanted to be four. When I was four, I wanted to be prime minister.
Whenever you analyse anyone who has had any success and they're in the headlines, you will
find they are human and make mistakes. I'm certainly that and I've made a lot of mistakes.
While there may not be a book in every one of us, there is so often a damned good short story.
Last on Earth
