Quotes by Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.

Bores

Colleagues

Scotland

A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.

Albums

Holism

Should

A lot of writers, especially crime writers, have an image that we think we’re trying to keep up with. You’ve got to be seen as dark and slightly dangerous. But I’m not like that and I’ve realised that I don’t need to put that on. People will buy the books whether they see a photo of you dressed in black or not.

Book

Dark

Thinking

At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching – that way, you pick up new ideas.

Ideas

Thinking

Way

From this height the sleeping city seems like a child’s construction, a model which has refused to be constrained by imagination. The volcanic plug might be black Plasticine, the castle balanced solidly atop it a skewed rendition of crenellated building bricks. The orange street lamps are crumpled toffee-wrappers glued to lollipop sticks.

Children

Cities

Sleep

His eyes beheld beauty not in reality but in the printed word. Standing in the waiting-room, he realized that in his life he had accepted secondary experience — the experience of reading someone else’s thoughts — over real life.

Life

Reading

Real

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star – I’d much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it’s not a bad life, is it? You just sit at a computer and make stuff up.

Frustrated

Rocks

Stars

I don’t have many friends. It’s not because I’m a misanthrope. It’s because I’m reserved. I’m self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I’m writing my books.

Adventure

Book

Writing

I don’t think I have one particular favourite writer. I have many whose works I will always buy or reread – Muriel Spark, Anthony Powell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ruth Rendell, James Ellroy, William McIlvanney, Kate Atkinson, John Burnside, Louise Welsh, Iain Banks.

Ruth

Sparks

Thinking

I love short stories – reading and writing them. The best short stories distill all the potency of a novel into a small but heady draught. They are perfect reading material for the bus or train or for a lunchtime break. Everything extraneous has been strained off by the author. The best short stories pack the heft of any novel, yet resonate like poetry.

Reading

Short Love

Writing

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Adventure

Albums

Allies

Asking Questions

Awards

Bizarre

Book

Bores

Breakfast

Character

Children

Cities

Coffee

Colleagues

Competition

Crime Novels

Cutting

Dad

Dark

Dream

Edinburgh

Fiction

Firsts

Football

Found

Frustrated

Giving Up

Growing Up

Hard Work

Holism

Home

Ideas

Kids

Laughter

Life

Luck

Lying

Matter

Men

Ocean

One Day

Opportunity

Past

Pockets

Radio

Reading

Real

Rocks

Ruth

Scotland

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.

A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.

At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching – that way, you pick up new ideas.

His eyes beheld beauty not in reality but in the printed word. Standing in the waiting-room, he realized that in his life he had accepted secondary experience — the experience of reading someone else’s thoughts — over real life.

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star – I’d much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it’s not a bad life, is it? You just sit at a computer and make stuff up.

I don’t have many friends. It’s not because I’m a misanthrope. It’s because I’m reserved. I’m self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I’m writing my books.

I don’t think I have one particular favourite writer. I have many whose works I will always buy or reread – Muriel Spark, Anthony Powell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ruth Rendell, James Ellroy, William McIlvanney, Kate Atkinson, John Burnside, Louise Welsh, Iain Banks.

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Topics by Ian Rankin

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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