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
“Antonia was very conscious of the corrosive power of envy and felt that it was this emotion, more than any other, which… — 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
That of all people, it should be him; that took her aback. That the heart should settle on somebody like him; that… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
It seems to me that we're in danger of losing sight of certain basic civic values in society by allowing the growth… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It's the second biggest cause of death amongs the English in… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
A wedding was a strange ceremony, she thought, with all those formal words, those solemn vows made by one to another; whereas… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time;… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Wherever I go in the world, people all know about Scotland Street and are always asking me about what's going to happen… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
The local community is very important in one's life; the feelings of identification with a place and people. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Reality television, which turned its eye on people who were doing nothing but being themselves, was the perfect expression of this trend… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
There is this intimacy still in Botswana. It's a country of just under two million people, and there's this sense of connectedness,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
It is not enough just to identify a problem; there are plenty of people who were very skilled at pointing out what… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
It would be wonderful to have a guru; it would be like having a social worker or a personal trainer, not that… — 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
Everybody has friends they dislike; people who they have slipped into relationships with, people they would not have chosen had they been… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Some of my characters are a mixture of various aspects of people I have met. others are pure invention. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
When you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
One of the most destructive things that's happening in modern society is that we are losing our sense of the bonds that… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
The people with the strong, brave exteriors are just as weak and vulnerable as the rest of us. And of course they… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep… — 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
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
Ritual is a terribly important, binding cement in a society. If we abandon formality and rituals, we're actually weakening the relationships that… — 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
