Alasdair Gray

“At last she interrupted with a harsh rattle of laughter. "Oh, yes, I like this book! Crazy hopes of a glamorous, rich,…

— Alasdair Gray

“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police." A character's response to a discussion about eating…

— Alasdair Gray

But I do enjoy words—some words for their own sake! Words like river, and dawn, and daylight, and time. These words seem…

— Alasdair Gray

“Lanark said irritably, "You seem to understand my questions, but your answers make no sense to me." "That's typical of life, isn't…

— Alasdair Gray

Are there many people without illness or disability who sit at home in the evening with clenched fists, continually changing the channel…

— Alasdair Gray

“The world sometimes seems a chessboard where the pieces move themselves. I'm never sure what square to go to. Yet it can't…

— Alasdair Gray

A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word…

— Alasdair Gray

“But leaders need to be mostly dead. People want solid monuments to cling to, not confused men like themselves.”

— Alasdair Gray

“One day after the exams, the teachers sat at their desks correcting papers while the pupils read comics, played chess or cards…

— Alasdair Gray

Think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he's already visited them…

— Alasdair Gray

I distrust speech therapy. Words are the language of lies and evasions. Music cannot lie. Music talks to the heart.

— Alasdair Gray

Movement turns dead dogs into maggots and daisies, and flour butter sugar an egg and a tablespoon of milk into Abernethy biscuits,…

— Alasdair Gray

“He watched them with the passionate regret with which he saw them play football or go to dances: the activity itself did…

— Alasdair Gray

“It is, but we can only help people by giving less than we take away from them. We enlarge the oasis by…

— Alasdair Gray

“She is the swelling sail, trim rigging and bust sunlit deck of our matrimonial yacht. I am the low hull, with the…

— Alasdair Gray

“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police. Truth, beauty and goodness are not mysterious, they…

— Alasdair Gray

“... I wish I could make you like death a little more. It's a great preserver. Without it the loveliest things change…

— Alasdair Gray

“People in Scotland have a queer idea of the arts. They think you can be an artist in your spare time, though…

— Alasdair Gray

“You, dear reader, have now two accounts to choose between and there can be no doubt which is most probable.”

— Alasdair Gray

“Who did the council fight?" "It split in two and fought itself." "That's suicide!" "No, ordinary behaviour. The efficient half eats the…

— Alasdair Gray

“I clenched my teeth and fists to stop them biting and scratching these clever men who want no care for the helpless…

— Alasdair Gray

“Her book was filled with centaurs because she had not fully grasped the complexity of actual people, actual horses.”

— Alasdair Gray

I ought to have more love before I die. I've not had enough.

— Alasdair Gray

“What would happen if most people tried to act intelligently on their own behalf? Anarchy. (....) So what can we do with…

— Alasdair Gray

Life becomes a habit. You get up, dress, eat, go tae work, clock in etcetera etcetera automatically, and think about nothing but…

— Alasdair Gray