“We act out our lives to a soundtrack, thought Isabel, the music that becomes, for a spell, out favourite and is listened… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
My wife Elizabeth and I started The Really Terrible Orchestra for people like us who are pretty hopeless musicians who would like… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“a word, as often happens, can be like a musical worm in the mind and invite repetition. But” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Resolution. Musicians know all about that, don’t they? Pieces of music seek resolution, have to end on a particular note, or it… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“For a short while she considered the idea of orchestral courtesy. Certainly one should avoid giving political offence: German orchestras, of course,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
The point of opera is that people are moved by the emotions and music. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Music and art and philosophy are ultimately based on the premise that this man on his tractor, and these pigs, and the… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Absurdly, irrationally, she believed that music could make a difference to the temper of the world.She did not investigate this belief, test… — 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
