Life consists of positive and negative features, and I think that it is permissible to write about both. — 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
“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
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
Writing fiction, I really just sit there and it just comes. — 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
Serial novels have an unexpected effect; they hook the writer as well as the reader. — 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
“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
As a writer I've learned certain lessons. One of them is to be careful about how you put a view, and to… — 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
“It would be wonderful, she thought, to write a book which would help other people.” — 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
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
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
“That, incidentally, gives me the greatest possible pleasure—the knowledge that we are all linked by our friendship with a group of fictional… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age. — 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
