Quote of the Day (William Boyd, on How ‘Novelists Are a Bit Like Spies’)

“Novelists are a bit like spies in the sense that we look at the world with the same kind of forensic attention. Not because we think somebody might be following us or because we’ve given away some secret, but because we’re interested. And so you notice that your neighbor has changed her hairstyle three times in the last month, just as a spy notices the same car has been parked outside for three days.”— British novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and film director William Boyd, quoted by Christian House, “Novelists Are Like Spies,” Financial Times, Sept. 6-7, 2025

The image accompanying this post, of William Boyd, was taken on Feb. 22, 2009, by Michael Fennell.