“But he'll never be fully recognised, because Scots literature these days is all about complaining and moaning and being injured in one's… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Serial novels have an unexpected effect; they hook the writer as well as the reader. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
With '44 Scotland Street' I found myself having to work out how a daily novel works, and it is completely different to… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
As a writer, I have readers who will have a range of political views. I don't think they look to me for… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She had been seized with a sudden existential horror. The house had white carpets and white furniture and, most significantly, no books.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colourful… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
I write four books a year. I'm very fortunate that I write quickly; around 3,500 words a day. Being strict about delineating… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
If you want to write, do two things - read lots of books and also, in your own writing, practise. Just write… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Fiction is able to encompass books that are bleak and which dwell on the manifold and terrible problems of our times. But… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Writers just play out their fantasies in their books. They are often very unstable, tricky people, Bertie. Writers are usually very bad… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Surely it is better, thought Domenica, that forty-five should buy the book and actually read it, than should many thousands, indeed millions,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Plenty of people were writing novels; in fact, if one did a survey in the street, half of Edinburgh was writing a… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
I think people in Botswana are pleased that my books paint a positive picture of their lives and portray the country as… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The readers of Isabel's journal were affected by the conversations within its covers-if nothing else, the livingroom of their moral imagination became… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
The wider your readership, the greater the chances of offending your readers. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
You're always told by your publisher that you must only write one book a year and some years you should perhaps write… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The sharing of a book is a statement—a message of affection that is also an act of self-revelation. Join my club, it… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Now the tea began to do its work- as it always did- and the world that only a few minutes previously had… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“It would be wonderful, she thought, to write a book which would help other people.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
I write four or five a books a year. That means that I usually have one on the go. I am fortunate… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Every single day, I get letters - very moving, overwhelming letters - testifying how much my books have meant to people in… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Every novel presents a slice of life. A noir policier for example presents one slice, one that perhaps addresses social dysfunction or… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Nobody went to bed at seven in Paris, even French children. Les enfants stayed up late at night, he had heard, eating… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Many of my books are written from a female perspective. I rather enjoy the take that women have on the world, and… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
My Botswana books are positive, and I've never really sought to deny that. They are positive. They present a very positive picture… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
This is another thing which I really like investigating in my novels: what is it that makes an intimate society, that makes… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Isabel is looking at several collections of research journals. 'She would understand the issues if she chose to open one of the… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“old-fashioned, gentle Scottish physician, unmoved by the considerations of profit and personal gain that could so disfigure medicine. That doctors should consider themselves businessmen… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She had not made a lot of money, but she had not made a loss, and she had been happy and entertained. That counted… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“To use strong language, she thought, was a sign of bad temper and lack of concern for others. Such people were not clever or… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Men are very sensitive, Mma Makutsi. You would not always think it to look at them, but they are. They do not like you… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“He is a good man, but even a good man can fall for a glamorous woman. That is well known.” “That is very well… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“And then the second thing you have to do is go and see your son. That is a duty of love, Andrew. It's as… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Because laughs never die away entirely,” said Jamie. “At least, if you believe in Marconi.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The trouble with having a conscience, she said to herself, is that it never sleeps.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“And if there's bad behaviour," Mma Potokwane went on. "If there's bad behaviour, the quickest way of stopping it is to give more love.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Has he not got a wife back wherever he comes from? Is there no wife to say, ‘You must not go off and visit… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
