Quotes by Ian Rankin

About Ian Rankin:

Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

This was the winter of 2008/9. Work was ongoing to reinstate a tram system in the city. A lot of people couldn’t see the point of trams and many more disliked the disruption. Streets were closed off. There was almost a sense of ‘apartheid’ as t...

Ian Rankin

The man nodded and brought a bottle from the glass-fronted fridge,

Ian Rankin

This man had something to hide, some shame in his past, and those with a past can always be bought.

Ian Rankin

You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.

Ian Rankin

War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.

Ian Rankin

I've always written. At the age of six or seven, I would get sheets of A4 paper and fold them in half, cut the edges to make a little eight-page booklet, break it up into squares and put in little stick men with little speech bubbles, and I'd have a ...

Ian Rankin

...trapped in limbo, believing in a lack of belief, but not necessarily lacking the belief to believe.

Ian Rankin

My father was a slave to capitalist ideology. He didn't know what he was doing." "You mean you went to an expensive school?

Ian Rankin

It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.

Ian Rankin

And little girls went to charm schools. Now you've all got degrees from the University of Sarcasm.

Ian Rankin

At the time, most bodies worked on by anatomists were cold indeed. They were brought to Edinburgh from all over Britain -- some came by way of the Union Canal. The resurrectionists -- body-snatchers -- pickled them in whisky for transportation. It wa...

Ian Rankin

Witches never existed, except in people’s minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We’re all witches in one way or another. Witches was the inventi...

Ian Rankin

I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this; it's written in Scots.' But my dad said: 'I can't read that.' He was reading James Bond and John le Carre. That was part of what attrac...

Ian Rankin

I think writers have to be proactive: they've got to use new technology and social media. Yes, it's hard to get noticed by traditional publishers, but there's a great deal of opportunity out there if you've got the right story.

Ian Rankin

You need a great idea, but then you've got to carry it through. If you get it right, you're going to be a critical success. But not everyone who works hard gets it right, or has the success they deserve: there's an element of luck.

Ian Rankin

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star - I'd much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it's not a bad life, is it? You just sit at a computer and make stuff up.

Ian Rankin

I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.

Ian Rankin

I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I'd think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, 'No - it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.'

Ian Rankin

No matter how many awards you've won or how many sales you've got, come the next book it's still a blank sheet of paper and you're still panicking like hell that you've got nothing new to say.

Ian Rankin

Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.

Ian Rankin

Author Bio

  • NameIan Rankin
  • DescriptionWriter
  • BornApril 28, 1960
  • CountryScotland
  • ProfessionWriter
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire; Edgar Award